


A Match Made in Heaven

by StrikeLikeACobraKai



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Beach House, But you'll find the ships more strongly represented in Malibu, Christmas, Couple goals, Dinner Parties, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gifts, I've marked those ships as tags since they feature very strongly in the plot, Jimmy and Jenny as Group Parents, Last few tagged characters only feature in chapter 7, Love, Matchmaking, POV First Person, POV Jimmy, Somewhat 80s mindsets but hopefully not too troubling, True Love, What Friends Do For Each Other, Young Adults
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrikeLikeACobraKai/pseuds/StrikeLikeACobraKai
Summary: Fall, 1986.Jimmy has been given the keys to his family beach house in Malibu. He’s working to earn his living, and he and Jenny are dreaming of their future.They wish their friends were so lucky.(A Malibu companion-fic)
Relationships: Bobby Brown/Barbara (Karate Kid), Dutch (Karate Kid)/Original Female Character(s), Jimmy (Karate Kid)/Jennifer, Johnny Lawrence/Ali Mills
Comments: 56
Kudos: 12
Collections: Malibu-niverse





	1. The Right Place at the Right Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InvisibleObserver13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvisibleObserver13/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Malibu](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27590390) by [StrikeLikeACobraKai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrikeLikeACobraKai/pseuds/StrikeLikeACobraKai). 



> So, another fic arrives into the Malibu-niverse*, but look at that rating! Seems hard to believe, even for me ^^)
> 
> No promises about chapter length, number of chapters, or posting schedule, but some little bits of Jimmy and Jenny love will be dropped in here as they come to visit my brain.
> 
> I'd advise you not to read this unless you've read Malibu, since it really is the story of Jimmy in that fic, and how his plans for the winter brought about exactly what he wanted them to. Locations and characters are described in Malibu, not here, and also this fic refers frequently to many scenes in Malibu, and occasional work from KingKarate's 'Rising Tide', as assumed knowledge.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> _*thanks KingKarate for coining that term. I love it!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoils Malibu up until at least Chapter 7, I think. Maybe longer, YMMV. Not everything that occurs here will pop up in Malibu, either, given that this is Jimmy's story, and that one is Johnny's, and we are limited to their POVs, and I don't plan to go over the same ground in both. This fic is here to give you more Jimmy, and more illumination into his story :) It will likely one day include some post-Malibu events, featuring Malibu characters. When I get there.
> 
> It's worth me pointing out one more time that this story really assumes you're reading Malibu, as I don't describe the setting much at all, because that is done in the main fic. This one assumes you are familiar with the locations featured at the beach house.

**Autumn, 1986**

Jenny’s sitting out there on the patio, watching the sunset, waiting for me.

I’m getting us a cocktail, fixing her favorite Long Island Iced Tea, at my bar. I’ve just squeezed the juice in and now I’m scooping ice into the shaker and our glasses. I strain the cocktail off and add the Coke, and once I’ve tested a sip – so _sweet_ , how does she like this? – I’m heading out to join her.

She smiles up at me, my beautiful girl, while I offer her the Tea.

“Warm night,” she says.

“Might be one of the last,” I agree, as I sit down beside her on her left, and the show in the sky starts properly.

She takes my hand in between us as we relax into the start of our evening. The first few months living here have gone really well; I now know how pretty much everything about the house works, and I just love it here. I can go to the beach whenever I want, have visitors, and I have my peace and quiet to do my artwork without being bothered, not that I have a lot of time for it right now, with work and night school.

Jenny loves it here, too. I’m trying not to think too hard about our future together in this house, but I’m losing the battle, because I can already hear children running down the stairs in the morning, asking if breakfast is ready, arguing about where their bathing suits have been put, and whether anyone has been in their room.

I tighten my grip on Jenny’s hand, knowing and grateful for how good I have it in my relationship with her, how lucky I’ve been to find the other part of me when I’m still young. I know some people go through their whole lives and never do.

“So I think we’ve got a bit of a wait,” I tell her, once the sky on the right is showing us orange and reds. A disappointing, although not surprising, talk with my parents happened earlier today.

I hear her sigh. “It’s okay. Not like my mom and dad would let me move in yet, anyway.”

“I guess they only see our age,” I say, and now I’m looking at her. “They don’t see… you know, how I feel about you.”

She’s just so pretty when she smiles like that.

“Try being eighteen. My parents think I’m nuts.”

I chuckle and give her hand another squeeze. “Have you told them we’re engaged?”

“No! Are you kidding me? They would lose their shit.”

I use my thumb and finger to move her ring, playing over it, and making it rotate a little. She only wears it when she’s with me, and only when nobody else is here, and for now, I think I actually like having that secret with her; we haven’t told anyone.

I figure the longer we go on as a happy couple, working and studying and making things work pretty well, and the longer we grow together, the better we make house here, the more it’s going to prove to everyone that this is right, that we know what we’re doing.

And then they’ll let us do it.

I mean, I know we could put our feet down and just go for it anyway, but it’s not Jenny’s style, and it’s not my preferred one either, since I love my parents a lot, and I’d rather they come around of their own accord, rather than me dragging them into accepting how serious we are. But I will if I have to. I’m not gonna wait for this forever.

I think we’ll announce it next year, sometime, maybe, and then I think maybe we will talk, _again,_ to both sets of parents about her moving in here with me, whether they like it or not.

But for now, Jenny’s mine, and I’m hers, and that’s really all either of us need.

Nobody knows but us, what we have, what it’s like for us, not really. But every day we spend here feels like the new best day of my life.

*

Later on when we’re in bed, Jenny’s lying against me, under my arm around her, and I think she might be asleep.

But then, “Jimmy,” comes her voice, when I was about to drift off myself.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking about Christmas.”

“Yeah? What about?”

“Well, I mean, _we_ could have it. We could do it here. For our families.”

I smile at her head, wide enough to make my cheeks a little bit tight, wondering why the thought hadn’t occurred to me, when it’s so obvious.

“It’s a lot of work.”

“Yeah, but you’ll help me,” she says contentedly.

“I would. You’re serious?”

She nuzzles into me and finds my other arm with her hand, holding me there.

“I’d really like to. There are no plans at my house yet, so it’s not too late to make this one.”

“Well, same here, and settled, then,” I say easily. “Beach Christmas. Well, maybe not _on_ the beach. We’ll have to see about the weather.”

She laughs, an airy sound. “Thank you.” By her dreamy voice, I know she’s already picturing the food, the tables, the decorations, the tree and what we will put on it. Give her two days, maybe less, and she will have every single part worked out, and will have taken me through them all in painstaking detail, in about a dozen conversations, which I may pretend to get tired of, to tease her, but secretly enjoy as much as she does.

I don’t even know if I’m gonna be able to bear how happy I am with Jenny, how perfect my life feels. And every time I think about it, there’s a counterpoint pang, one that has been getting stronger lately, especially since the last time Johnny came over to go to the beach with me.

“Are you okay if we have a party before that, too?” I ask. “For everyone from college, or not. You know, once the semester breaks.”

Jenny sounds animated again. “Oh, Barbara would love that! I’d love to ask her over.”

“Well, you don’t have to wait for me to say so, for that... you know that, right? This is gonna be your house, too.”

She turns to kiss me on my cheek, smiling. “You let me make myself that at home, and you might find it’s hard to shift me.”

Her brown eyes always remind me of dark spun sugar, just on the edge of caramel.

“Promise?”

She kisses me properly after that, and then she settles back against me.

“Jenny?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s okay if I ask the guys, right?”

I’m nervous: she knows as well as I do that there’s a lot of complexity there, but for me, as much as I like Jenny’s friends, they are the ones I wanna see.

“Of course! If we ask enough people, it will be fine.”

I love how I don’t have to explain anything to her, and that she’s already fixing the problem I can see. She's a marvel, and sometimes it feels like she can access my brain whenever she feels like it; it can be slightly scary.

“Are we going to talk about the main reason it might not be, though?”

Jenny sighs against me. “I’d like to think after so long, maybe it would be alright between them...”

“But I don’t think they’ve talked, not really, since I finished school, even before that. Well, neither of them have told me if they have. ”

“So, things might have settled down then? The old hurt covered over?”

I know Johnny better than that.

Or, no, wait - that is probably _exactly_ the right statement, actually. He does cover over his hurts, sometimes with a lot of layers, but they're still there underneath, exactly where they were. They haven't gone anywhere.

I have to give him a lot of credit, though. He’s worked so hard to recover from what we all went through as kids, and maybe him more than most of us due to the way he’s treated by his stepdad, always has been since he was a kid. Now he’s like a different guy with how mature he is about a lot of things, although if you didn’t know to look for it, maybe you wouldn’t notice, because like a lot of things, he's contained with it; the most obvious evidence is that he’s usually pretty chilled out these days.

But I notice it. I notice all of it, and I'm proud of him. But I also know that there’s a lot of things hidden away that Johnny doesn’t want any of us to realise are still there, so I never say that I know about them.

“Maybe,” I say dubiously.

I mean, I would hate to make Johnny feel bad by bringing him into contact with Ali. I know that particular heartbreak was a deep one, and even though he likes to make out that he’s over her, every now and then when he’s back up here, something he says or does makes me wonder if he is.

Ali’s changed a lot, too. She’s growing into a young woman, and while she still seems the same, in many ways, she’s very centered, very focussed on her future, almost calm in some ways, although then you see her old fire again, and you remember it’s still there. We haven’t been hanging out as much in the months since Jenny finished school, of course, because Ali moved further away for college at the end of summer. But we get along really well, when we do, so I’m looking forward to catching up when she comes back for the holidays.

Am I an idiot for thinking I can get her, get all the girls together, and all of their circle, and my guys too? Everyone from our own groups, all at the same time?

The optimist in me, which flourishes when Jenny is around, tends to think if we have enough people here, maybe a few dozen at least, then there’s enough camouflage that people can talk to whoever they want to, and ignore whoever they want to, and everything will be fine.

And then part of me thinks of Susan. And how I know she feels whenever a particular one of my friends is even mentioned by name, which breaks my heart for her, that that wound still hurts after a year or more. Well, going on for two, I guess, although they did spend the last semester of my senior year trying again a few times, but by then, it was awful, and there was a lot of fallout. Tommy did not make good choices, although I’m sure it wasn’t all on him, but it makes me feel kinda ashamed to think of.

But Susan knows how to ignore him; she got real good at it. Potentially more explosive is what might happen when Ali spots Johnny in very close quarters. I think they’ve had enough casual contact that it has made them a little numb to their old hurt; they have run into each other here or there, I know. But at the same party? Maybe I am reaching for the stars.

“We don’t have to,” Jenny says. “If you’re worried.”

“I am worried. What if it goes badly?”

“Well, what’s the worst that can happen?" she asks reasonably. "They ignore each other? One of them storms out and leaves?”

I smile. “I guess I can handle that.”

She pauses and then says, “And what’s the best that can happen?”

I sigh heavily, because I don’t really want to entertain that hope. I know it's almost completely guaranteed to lead to disappointment.

Still, I can’t quite help but say, now that Jenny’s put it out there, “What do you think our chances are?”

“Honestly? Higher than you think. The timing is right, for both of them.”

*


	2. Balancing Act

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :) Nice to see you here again. Thank you for the lovely interaction with my chapter 1. I appreciate it very much <333
> 
> If you’re reading Malibu (and I mean, are you reading _this_ if you aren’t? I have no idea, but maybe?), consider this to spoil at least the themes up Chapter 10, could be later. Again, the locations I’m using are described in that story, so yeah, you know, assumed knowledge :)
> 
> Might see some more little crossovers with some party plots next time, although this will remain Jimmy’s story.

**Late Autumn**

It’s Sunday morning, not long after seven, and Jenny and I have just got out of the water.

I might have to talk to her about pushing the time back for our early morning swim, because I think I need more sleep.

Okay, I don’t think, I _know_ I do.

During the week it’s straight from work to school every night for me, eating in the car on the way. And then home to what needs to be done, although by Thursday, sometimes I’m staggering in the door, and heading straight for bed.

But when Jenny stays here on the weekend, and she wakes me with a cup of something warm, pressed into my hands and a kiss as she leans over me, and she’s already gotten into her bathing suit and laid out mine for me with some towels, and she just looks so lively, so cheerful, happy to be at the house and wanting to get our day together started, I find that I don’t have the heart to say no. She pulls me into her joy every single time, and I don’t mind at all.

I need every one of these moments with her.

We’re crossing the sand this morning, and the sky is slowly brightening into the full day. 

Jenny and I aren’t the only ones out early: dogs are being walked, exercise taken, and one or two other early morning swimmers from the nearby houses are heading down to the ocean.

We’re way ahead of them, already drying ourselves off on the way back home, and Jenny’s chipper, as she always is after our swim, her smile filling me up the way it does.

“It’s freezing,” she says with a laugh, and I can see her teeth are right on the edge of a chatter as she wraps her towel around herself.

“Hey, it was _your_ idea,” I tease. “Told you it’s getting a little cold, now.”

It’s not the water that’s so bad, yet, but the morning breeze isn’t warmed much by sand or sun, and so the evaporation really does chill you.

“Well, I guess you know everything then, don’t you?”

I grin at her. “I have been staying here, off and on, for about half of my life. So, yeah, I guess it makes sense I might know a few things?”

I wave at our neighbours when we’re near the steps, as they come down theirs: it’s an older couple who are heading out for a powerwalk in color-coordinated outfits, and they wave back.

“Yeah, yeah,” she concedes, squeezing her hair out. “Hey, I guess maybe we should try to come down a little later in the day?”

A sudden opening for an end to the early swims, before I had anticipated? This makes me very happy.

“We could,” I agree, not too heartily, I hope, not to give my game away. “We could sleep in, read the newspaper in bed?”

“I like that idea.”

I take her hand, already enjoying my future sleep next weekend; I can almost feel it now.

Jenny’s smiling up at my place as we climb the steps, and whenever I catch her with that look, it makes that lucky feeling of mine nearly too big to contain, because it’s so _strong_. She doesn’t hide from me that she’s got as clear a vision of our future as I do, and when I see it written in her face, it’s pretty overwhelming.

One day this will be ours, together, and then further down the track it will be our family house, and somehow, for some reason, _I_ get to have that, with the best girl in the world.

“What time you gotta go?” I ask.

“Ugh, before lunch, I guess. I didn’t get as much of my paper done yesterday as I needed to, since someone was distracting me.”

I give a sheepish laugh. “You didn’t seem to mind at the time.”

We’re up on the patio now, and she’s wrapped her towel right up under her arms. She picks up her cooling coffee from where we left them on the table out here and takes a sip.

“Yes, and I suspect I won’t mind if that happens again, either, which is why I should probably go home.”

Jenny’s flashing me a smile, and I pull her toward me. Her skin is cool, like mine, and I rub her biceps, trying to warm her up.

“Hey,” she protests, as I catch her cup in between us and it nearly spills. “Careful...”

“Sorry.” I grin, and let her take a another sip and then I lift it out of her hands and put it back down on the table, so I can get her in my arms properly.

I go on, “But, well, see, the thing is you’ve just told me you’re leaving soon. And I guess I panicked.”

She rolls her eyes, and I’m laughing as her hand slips up behind my head to draw me down to her.

*

“So, I’ve been thinking about the party,” I say to Jenny, and then get to working on my eggs.

It took us a while to get to breakfast, but we are now, and we’re taking it in the sunroom, sitting in the wicker chairs with trays on our laps: oatmeal, orange juice, sliced fruit, and a couple of over-easy.

“Yeah? How are we going with RSVPs, by the way?”

I grimace. “They’re all pretty lazy. It’s bad. I’ve had to go chasing, calling them, since most of them don’t see why they’d need to bother letting me know if they can come or not.”

Jenny shakes her head and sighs. “Not like we’d have to plan food and drinks or anything, right?”

“Right. But I guess I should give them a break; they’re young, and none of them are really out on their own, or doing entertaining. I guess they don’t really get that yet, don’t have a clue what it takes.”

“Hey, you won’t hear me arguing if you want to tell me your friends are immature.”

I chuckle. “It’s not just _my_ friends, thanks; I’ve had to call some of yours, too.”

“Sorry,” she says with a guilty smile, chasing the last of her oatmeal with her spoon. “You know you could’ve given me that job?”

“Nah, it’s okay. I wanted to do it. Anyway, I haven’t even had _one_ ‘no’, yet, which is both wonderful, and I guess maybe alarming.”

“It’s getting out of control?”

I nod and sip my juice. “And I think it’s too late to stop it, now.”

“How many?”

“Could be more than thirty?”

“Shit.”

“It’s okay,” I add gently, because we have been not-quite arguing about this for about a week. “Please say you’ll let me get caterers. I know you wanna cook; I know how much you love to do that, but I don’t want you to be in the kitchen all night. I want you to be able to see all of our old friends, too.”

She gives a frustrated sound. “I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want to do it, Jimmy.”

“I know that. Hey. I… well, I’ve had a thought.”

She raises an eyebrow in suspicion, and I scratch my head and go on:

“What if there was more than one party?”

“In what way?”

“Like, what if we start on the Wednesday, like we planned, but then we have another one soon after - have a few, same people?”

She’s looking confused. “I thought you were worried about how much work the party is, and now you want to have _more_ of them?”

“Well, here’s my compromise. What if you let me get caterers in for the first one, so you can have an easier night, and I get to spend time with you, with our friends. Because you know if you’re in the kitchen, I’m gonna have no choice but to be in there with you, right?” I’m giving her a look which I know will seal my case. “Is that what you wanna do to me? At my first real party that I throw here?”

I can see her stifling a smile. “Go on.”

“And then, after that, well - we can talk about details. But we can throw the other parties ourselves, or at least some of them. Assuming you’ll promise me you don’t go overboard with what you plan, so you can be out in the parties, too.”

Jenny’s about to speak, and I can guess with what, so I quickly add:

“Overboard _too many times_. I’ll let you, once or twice.”

She gives a ringing laugh. “Oh, you’ll _let_ me, will you? I guess we’ll have to see what I let you do, too. Or not.”

“My house,” I tease.

“For now,” she agrees, grinning at me. “But… I like the idea. Yes, Jimmy. Yes, let’s do it.”

“Yeah?” I say happily. “It’d be great, right?”

“It would. We’ll never get around to talking to everyone as much as we want to on the first night. Let’s make a real winter of it.”

I’m going to have to contain my excitement at how it will feel to run our house that way all holidays, how much it will feel like a home, like our thing, as a couple living together, which we aren’t yet.

“Gives us a lot more time with everyone, and you know…”

“Exactly,” Jenny says, and picks up her plate, using her fork to give me her last peaches and take my strawberries, a regular trade she knows she doesn’t have to ask me about. “It’ll get everyone back together, properly; gives the groups more time to hang out, mix together.”

I stare at her, grateful for how she just gets it. “God, I love you.”

“As you should.”

“I uh…” I chew my lip and look at Jenny. “I’m thinking it will give _them_ a much better shot, too.”

She gives me a gentle smile. “And now I see the real reason.”

I look down at the last bits of breakfast on my plate. “It’s not just that. I meant what I said about you and I, and our friends.”

“I know you did, Jimmy. It’s okay.”

She’s found my hand.

“I love that you care about him that way. Things like that are why I love you as much as I do. And you’re absolutely right. I should’ve thought of it myself.”

*

**Winter – Wednesday 1 (post party)**

I’m still working through, but it’s good to be on break from studying. I’m gonna use a few holiday days here and there, an odd one each week, like I did today, so I can spend more time with my friends, and help Jenny get everything ready. I’m lucky that my dad doesn’t stint me on holidays, and with the nature of our business, he is happy to give me some flexibility around working longer days to earn shorter days, too.

I know, I know, I’m lucky. And I’m very grateful for it.

I’m busy, but I won’t always be; this is my opportunity to make a future for me, and for Jenny. She’s doing the same thing: she’s studying interior design, and she’s a complete natural. Slowly, slowly, I’m letting her redecorate here, as I save up to afford it, and I love that she has an image for how she wants our home to look. More than that, she’s going to be great at her job, I know it.

“You did a great job tonight,” I tell her in the kitchen. I’ve got my hands in soapy water, washing and rinsing glasses for the drain board.

We’re working on the dishes that are either too large or too delicate for the dishwasher. One of the benefits of my parents’ house – my house - is that has the glassware, flatware and dinnerware enough for a small horde to eat and drink with, and the drawback being that someone has to wash them afterwards. But my idea worked well: we were saved from cooking, serving, circulating with food, and all the rest, and really, this end-of-night work is a small price to pay for how much fun I had seeing my friends all in the one place, getting to hang out. We got to play the hosts in the big picture instead, and I loved it.

“I didn’t do much,” Jenny says, “but I think it went well? What did you make of it?”

“Everyone had a great time, and there wasn’t any tension between the groups or anything.”

Jenny gives the crystal flute she’s drying a quiet laugh. “That’s what you think, but I know what you mean. Everyone behaved well.”

“You think it’ll be okay on Saturday?”

“We can only hope. We’ll have to let it play out, although it might be good to have a backup plan if things look like going south.”

“Good idea.” I flash her a glance and notice she’s absent-mindedly narrowing her eyes at the lime green splash tiles, which she often does. They’re tiny squares, and many of them are chipped. She’s got that project in mind next, and I’m all for it in the sense that I, too, think those tiles are awful even for the 1960s and 70s, but hesitant that if she starts on the splashback, it may devolve into a full kitchen makeover, and I do need to actually be able to live here in my house.

However, I’m aware that eventually, we _will_ do the tiles. I know how things work; I’m not an idiot.

“So, Jenny,” I say, “are you gonna ask me how, you know… how it went up there?”

She smiles at me. “I don’t need to. She told me already.”

“What did she say?”

She tuts at me and shakes her head. “If I tell you, will you go running to him with the news?”

I laugh and reach for the last few dirty flutes. “Is that how we’re going to play this?”

“I don’t know how to play it, really. I guess Ali would expect us to talk, but still…”

“I get it. Let’s drop it, then. It’s okay. Can I just ask whether you think there’s say, more, or less hope than that day we first talked?”

Jenny pushes the dishcloth back onto its rail, and loops her arms around me from behind.

“The same… maybe a little more. It sounds like he didn’t do badly. I can’t tell you anything really, since I don’t know much.”

She rocks me, gently, the way she likes to do, and I go with her, smiling as I rinse the suds off of the final glass.

“You think I need to arrange for them to talk again?”

“I doubt it. He’s got a brain, and he seems much better at using it these days.”


	3. Keeping an Eye on Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoils the themes of Malibu until Chapter 11.
> 
> This one has a series of post-party chats/confessions, and these will continue into Chapter 4, since there’s a lot happening in the Malibu story at this time.

**Wednesday 2: Post Party**

“You’re a genius.”

Jenny smiles at me proudly. “Yes, we’ve discussed this before.”

I laugh and slip my arm around her shoulder and she nestles into me. We’re sitting on the sofa in the living room. Our last guest just left, and we’re both riding a high of how tonight went.

“I need to say it again. Hundreds of times. How did you come _up_ with that?”

“Wasn’t hard to think of.” She shrugs. “Just needed to remind my friends, and yours, about how much fun we used to have when we hung out.”

I kiss her on the cheek and stare at her in awe. “But you totally changed the atmosphere.”

“Come on,” she says modestly, “some of that happened when we all went up the beach on Saturday, and after.”

“Yeah, a _little,_ maybe. But you’ve made it happen properly. Honestly, Jenny, I’m almost afraid of your skill with this.”

Her grin reminds me of nothing so much as Cheshire Cat. “And if I promise to use my powers only for good?”

“Then I’ll be relieved, a little bit.”

Her lips touch mine, and then she stands up to start collecting the shit that’s all over the table. I sigh and get up to help her, because the sooner we set it all right, the sooner we can go to bed.

Jenny’s been staying over about half the nights of the week since holidays started, and it’s fun; it feels even more like we’re living together. Some nights we have a party on, and other nights it’s just us.

I love both for different reasons, and it’s started off as a great winter at my house.

The early morning swims are gone, too, if I needed anything more to be grateful for, and now we settle for a walk either before or after I go to work, sometimes both, or anytime we like if it’s the weekend, whether it’s dark or not.

Jenny’s well under way with the final details for Christmas. It’ll be a busy few days here, since we have a party the night before, but we won’t let that one go late, and our Christmas guests don’t come until lunchtime, so it should be okay. With extended family on both sides, we’re having a few dozen people, and it means that the dining room would be very crowded if we sat in there, although technically there is enough space for that many people around the long table. Once we get closer, Jenny and I will probably choose between setting out some portable tables on the patio or in the living room, so we aren’t cramped, because we’ll spend a few hours sitting and eating.

Jenny’s making the centerpieces from some branches and baubles, and she’s making all kinds of other decorations for the tables, things in the gold and green color scheme she’s chosen, and she’s been hoarding decorative napkin rings, candle holders and placenames. Jenny has decided that we aren’t getting a tree to put up until it’s nearly Christmas due to the crowds at the parties. We both think, and hope, that everyone will be mixing more and more, going all over the house and outside, and some more distant friends have gotten in touch and asked whether maybe they can come along on Saturday or next week, so we’re about to grow bigger, and I assume that the parties might get a little crazier now that people are starting to relax with each other.

Both of our parents have trees up at home, too, so I don’t mind.

But it’s about the only thing that’s missing in the preparations. My house now has a new set of cloth napkins with gold embroidery, more silver servers, and Jenny has started to talk about sewing bows to put on the chairs.

When I get home on a weekday when Jenny’s been here, she brings out whatever she’s been working on all day, to proudly show me her progress. She’s been trying out some new recipes, and has fed me the most delicious candied yams I’ve eaten in my life, as well as spoonfuls of potato salad, which I am supposed to differentiate from the previous batch, even though I’m mostly pretending when I say that I can, when I declare that this one is even better.

We had my parents over to dinner, on Sunday, and Jenny’s are coming next weekend.

Sunday went so well: it was a great night. My parents are slowly getting to know Jenny as an adult, rather than my high school girlfriend. I know they like her, and always have, but I could tell they were impressed by just how overwhelmingly _capable_ she is at basically anything she tries to do, and they gave her lots of compliments about the dinner.

I mean, she deserved it. She shared the credit with me, even though most of it is hers, because all I did was what I was told, when we were getting ready. She had an idea for a salad from Spago, and then we had crab cakes, and with the roast, she made this artichoke mousse that I’m still thinking about four days later. When it was time to taste it in the kitchen, I argued strongly that she and I just eat the whole thing, because it really, really needed to be eaten. I wasn’t allowed to, and I gave in and we served it at dinner, and sure enough it was the highlight of the night.

Times with my parents like that are really important. We’ll do more of them: it’ll only help speed up their decision about us living here together, because there’s literally no reason why it’s a bad idea, and we’ll show them that. Same for her parents.

I’m finding that keeping house with her, whether it’s the parties, the dinner, our Christmas plans – it’s a lot of work, and it’s kinda taken the place of my study hours before I even realised that that’s what was happening.

But I don’t mind at all; it’s not exhausting like that.

This sounds perverse to me, and it’s the kinda thing I would die before telling my friends - but we both _love_ it. It really makes me feel like I’m doing the thing, the big picture of life with Jenny and with people we care about. Neither of us like to sit around doing nothing, and I’ve always found that worthwhile things do take work, and that it’s part of what makes them feel worthwhile in the first place.

My friends would probably never, ever get that, and I’m not sure Jenny’s friends would either, but it’s great to learn how compatible we are in those ways.

Jenny comes back into the living room with a box for us to put empty bottles in, and she throws me a wet cloth. With exactly where she’s standing, I’m reminded of something from tonight.

“I forgot to ask you on Saturday, do you know what happened to Bobby, with Barbara?”

I see her bite one cheek as she stacks the dirty glasses into piles. I follow behind her, wiping the table after her.

“Ugh, don’t go there.”

I raise an eyebrow. “There’s a _there_?”

I hear a small sigh. “Yes, there’s a there. Barbara’s got a bit of history, ancient now, and I don’t think I should talk to you about it.”

“Okay… that’s fine. I mean, is everything alright?”

I know nothing about this history, and I can’t help wondering if Jenny has it mixed up. _Bobby_ has a crush. That much is clear, would be clear to someone standing in Nevada if they know him like I do, but I don’t see that Barbara knows about it, so how could it be a problem?

“It’s fine, but I think she got her wires crossed that he was winding her up, and that’s not gonna go well.”

“Winding her up?” Now this makes even less sense, since Bobby doesn’t play games.

“Yeah, Jimmy. Let’s forget it, hey?”

I scratch my head, because evidently there’s something I know nothing about. I just hope Bobby keeps out of trouble, deliberate or accidental. Barbara doesn’t like him at all, I’ve noticed, unless she’s a very good actress. I mean, it’s not out of the realms of possibility, since I have seen girls, and guys, do that before, but this is too much for me to unravel, anyway.

I’ve got enough troubled romance to rekindle as it is.

I offer hopefully, “I think Bobby might be distracted now, anyway?” I’m referring to Samantha, who seems to have taken a liking to him.

“Yeah,” Jenny agrees, but she’s looking out the patio, into the dark, not at me.

Once we’ve tidied the kitchen and swept up, we head upstairs.

Jenny runs a bath, and she’s in there with me sitting on the edge, talking to her.

She lifts up one leg a little, so that her foot and her calf appear out from under the layer of bubbles, and she runs her toe along the tiles at the end of the bath.

“So I’m still thinking about the waterslide.”

I feel my cheeks warming, unable to stop it whenever I remember that day, and that’s the second time I’ve had to be reminded about it.

I’m giving a shamed laugh. “You’re awful. It’s bad enough Ali brought it up, but _you_ know how mortified I was. Try to put yourself in my place.”

She’s smiling at me very directly. “I did try. I tried to get an eyeful that day, and I guess I _did_. Can’t see why you’d be embarrassed, Jimmy. You should be proud.”

I catch hold of her foot and run my thumb along her instep, a light tickle, which makes her smile wider.

“You keep that up and I’m gonna wonder if it was you who stole my shorts.”

She gives a laugh like crystal. “If I’d have had the chance, I would’ve. I won’t deny it. And I’d have kept them until this day.”

“Stop,” I beg, but half-heartedly, because I’m finding Jenny’s making me feel a lot better about that wretched memory.

“Why? You’re sexy, and why would you deprive me about thinking about it?”

Jenny has a single-minded look in her eyes.

**Saturday 2: Post Party**

We’ve fixed the lounge room, and straightened up the patio chairs. The beach isn’t a mess, as the parties haven’t really spread there much yet, although the creep has started, and they will. We’ve sat down outside for a nightcap, and Jenny’s cradling her Tea and looking up at the sky. In LA you don’t really get to look at the stars, but you can imagine they’re up there amongst that hazy dull glow, and every now and then you see a bright one.

“So do you think our friends will ever offer to help clean up?” she asks.

“Give them a few years and they might.”

“Dutch hasn’t changed much, has he?”

I frown thoughtfully. “Actually you’d be surprised. He’s getting on with things, in his own way. I think he’s going okay.”

“Mmm.”

I feel like there’s something Jenny wants to say, so I give her some time.

“Oh it’s just I was talking,” she comes out with. “Well, not _quite_ , to him, tonight. When I was with Tina and Connie just before.”

“I’m trying to work out what conversation you might have had, but I’m drawing a blank, I’ll be honest.”

I love Dutch, and I love Jenny, and I think their interests are almost entirely separate circles on a Venn diagram.

Jenny sips her drink. “Well, it was more Johnny, I guess, and Tina. Connie and I were listening to them talk about cars, bikes, all that.”

“Yeah well, that’d be Tina. I’m sure she more than held her ground.”

Jenny smiles at her drink. “She did. Jimmy?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think he’ll ever have a girlfriend?”

“Who, Dutch?”

“Yes, stupid, since you and I already have Johnny’s picked out for him.”

I chuckle. “How’s that going, by the way?”

“No update tonight. She left really quickly, and I have no idea why. I’m going to call her tomorrow.”

I cross my legs at my ankles. “Well, Dutch has dated before. It could happen again. I’d say it will be sudden, if he does. It seems like him. Like the right circumstances come up, and he would.”

“How long into the future will that be?”

I shrug lightly. “Depends on the girl, I guess. Why, you got someone in mind?”

“Maybe, but I’m just going to see how it plays out.”

I turn to inspect her. “You’re hiding things from me. More by the day.”

“I’m not, really. You only feel that way cos I don’t want to talk about Ali.”

“Well, you are sitting on information that would help me.”

“She’s not giving me a lot, I’m just cheering from the sides, really. I talk Johnny up, when I get the chance. He seems to be going well, considering, although after Ali leaving the way she did, hopefully he hasn’t gone and screwed it all up.”

“I doubt it. Not with how well it’s been going so far. He’s smarter than that.”

But I can’t help a small part of me thinking, you _are,_ aren’t you, Johnny? You’d fucking _better_ be.

“And I guess you’re right,” I add. “We mostly need to let them work it out.”

**Wednesday 3: Post Party**

We’re down on the beach, by ourselves.

Jenny’s sitting in my arms, and even though it’s only a few hours until dawn, neither of us feel like going to sleep just yet; we’re too excited.

“Oh my god,” she says, again.

I grin. “Right?”

“Oh my _god._ ”

“They were gone for, like, nearly an hour. Just them.”

Jenny sighs happily and pulls my arms tighter around her. “This is going to happen, isn’t it?”

“I’m trying not to start hoping with everything I’ve got, just in case it doesn’t, but it’s looking good.”

She says thoughtfully, “That’s true… there’s so far to go.”

“Right. But I’m getting the feeling they might want to.”

We share our happy moment for a little longer, both of us knowing that we really should be heading back up to tidy up from that drinking game. I might need to call an older friend and several liquor stores too, with the dent that was made in my bar.


	4. Success or Failure?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Hope you enjoy this one! Some things sure do happen <3
> 
> Spoils Malibu to Chapter 10, at least. This chapter picks up immediately after the last one ends.

**Wednesday 3: Post Party (cont’d)**

“Well, I have to say, I’m glad you’ve made our already busy next week even more busy, Jimmy.”

I turn around from stacking the shot glasses back in the cupboard, looking sheepish, but Jenny is smiling, from where she’s sitting up on the bar.

She’s talking about the karate tournament my friends and I are organising, which happens to fall on an extra party night, when we’re already hosting two per week, and it also happens to be three days before Christmas, when we have twenty-four people coming for lunch. I know it’s precisely twenty-four, because Jenny sometimes counts them up again, and when I say _sometimes,_ I mean most days now that we’re this close; she also talks at length about chairs, tables, and settings, and so I am very intimately acquainted with it.

Honestly, it’s still been very fun, and I can’t wait until the day. But also, part of me, which I won’t tell Jenny about, can’t wait until the day after, since Christmas dominates nearly every conversation we have, if we aren’t talking about the parties.

Is this what it means to be an adult every winter?

If so, I’m less keen on that part than I thought I’d be.

“It’s not that big of a deal?” I suggest.

“I was kidding. It’s fine. It’ll be nice to watch you, since it’s been so long.”

“So, ah, putting aside the things that some of our friends now know about us…”

Jenny rolls her eyes, but she seems to have gotten over it given her wry smile, so I go on, “What did you think of what was happening here?”

The drinking game was an _eye-opener_ for me.

She waits longer than I expect to answer me, slowly rolling circles with her ankles. “Did… what happened after I went down to the beach?”

I cross my arms and stare at her with my eyebrows raised. “I’m wondering what you think _might_ have happened. Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you asked me about Dutch the other night.”

Jenny and I are in a stand-off, and she’s the one who breaks first, looking away, grinning.

“Fine. Ask the question, Jimmy.”

I say simply, “Is there something going on with Tina and Dutch?”

“Like what?”

“Like you know exactly what.”

Jenny smiles again and taps me with her foot. “Not yet. But all I can say is maybe don’t be surprised if there soon is.”

Holy shit. The first thought is I would never have seen it coming, but it lasts about two seconds before I realise _I should have seen it coming,_ because they’re so similar to each other, they’d be perfect. But, wow. _Dutch._ Hopefully he would get that Tina is a chance for something more than his usual.

I step into Jenny and put my arms around her waist. “I love it.”

“I think I do, too, although it’s….”

“Unexpected?” I suggest.

“Unexpected. But also... great.”

Jenny slips her hands into the back pockets of my jeans. “Your parties are making more matches than you planned.”

“Matches, plural?”

“Figure of speech.” She kisses me, but won’t really let me get it going, ducking away from me when I try. “I need to go finish up some Christmas stuff before bed, okay?”

I sigh, since she’s obsessed and there’s nothing I can do about it; I’ve given up. She’s having a great time, and she’s doing a great job. And at least in a week’s time, she’ll be able to relax, because it will be over.

“I’ll be up soon.”

*

**Saturday 3: Mid-Party**

The five of us gave each other a day or two to reconsider the plan for Monday, but we’re all still keen, so tonight I’m making it public. I’ve been around the house, and finished up going down to the beach, meeting Jenny and Barbara on their way back up the steps.

“You missed the show,” Barbara tells me, as we all stop where we are. “You should’ve seen this one here.” She bumps Jenny with her shoulder, where she’s standing on the next step up.

Jenny gives me this excited, proud smile. “We’ve been practicing this new dismount.”

“You gonna show me?”

“Maybe I will, on Monday.”

I move to the side of the steps, since some of the guys from Ali’s year are going past, down to the beach. I look at Jenny, puzzled, and Barbara explains, “Johnny told me earlier on, about you guys. And he asked if we wanted to do something, for like, half time.”

“That’s great! I should’ve thought of that.”

“Yeah, well,” Jenny says. “Pressure’s on us now to get ready. Barbara’s going to come over tomorrow so we can practise.”

“If that’s okay?” Barbara asks, with her sunny smile.

“Of course. Stay for lunch, if you like.”

“Thanks! Jenny has some Christmas stuff to show me, so that would be nice.”

“Of course she does,” I say, in the long-suffering tone Jenny expects me to, and she gives me a superior smile.

They both turn to go, heading up the steps, but then I call, “Hey, Barbara?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you… I’ve been meaning to ask.”

I shoot a glance over my shoulder and then jog up three steps so I don’t need to speak too loudly.

“You’d tell me if something was up? Like, if you thought… one of my friends was bothering you? Because I’m sure they didn’t mean anything by it.”

Barbara stares at me in confusion and then fixes Jenny with a demanding look.

Jenny shakes her head slightly, and there’s an awkward pause as neither of them seem to know what to say now, which makes three of us.

Luckily Jenny takes it in hand eventually, and says lightly, “Oh, that silly thing that happened a few weeks back? That was nothing, right?”

Barbara manages a meek shrug. “I’d forgotten about it, but no. Nothing to worry about, Jimmy.” She winds a strand of hair behind her ear, and there’s something almost evasive about the way she’s not looking at me. “Thanks.”

It is obvious that I’ve missed something very big going on, and that they wish to keep it that way, so I’ll let them, since they’ve lost me.

“Okay, great. Well, I still have more people to go tell, so I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smile as meaningfully as I can, and Barbara nods, relaxing a little.

“See you.”

But I don’t miss the look she shoots Jenny as they go up the steps.

I catch up to Bobby where he’s wandering up to Tommy’s group, who are further up the beach, but after whatever that just was, I’m out, I decide. It seems like a mystery that could get me in trouble. Besides, I’d hate to get Bobby’s hopes up, and he might not even like knowing that I’ve noticed his crush.

The group with Tommy, maybe ten people, have moved my torches, and they’re sitting in a circle inside three of them, laughing loudly enough to be heard well up the beach in both directions.

Once I’ve told everyone there the details for Momday, people are looking at the three of us friends with some admiration, and it makes me start to look forward to the match even more.

I think that might be just about all the guests that I need to tell. Tommy asks me to sit down, but I’m cold, and I don’t wanna stay down here without a sweater, so I head back up and go to my bedroom.

On the way back, I see that Ali’s out on my deck again.

I haven’t had the chance to talk to her for a couple nights, so I head out there.

“Hey.”

Ali smiles over at me, although I get the strangest feeling that she might have been hoping I was someone else. Could be my imagination, though, only because I _want_ to see that.

“Hey, Jimmy.” She’s got a blanket around her tonight, because she must be feeling the cold like I am.

I move over to stand by the rail. I lean one arm up there and glance down at the people on the beach: Aaron and Greg have got their soccer ball out again in the time it took for me to come upstairs.

“So, I’ve just being going around and telling everyone… there’s a karate show here on Monday.”

Ali is immediately interested. “All of you guys?”

“Yeah. We’re gonna run it like a competition just to make it fun for the audience, although we all know how that’s going to go.”

Ali gets a look in her eyes, something like nostalgia, maybe even pride.

“You sure he’s still got it?”

I laugh drily. “Pretty sure. So… can you make it?”

“Monday? Yeah, I guess that’s okay. Sounds good.”

It occurs to me to wonder whether this is a chance for Johnny to impress her, or whether that’s something that wouldn’t really register for Ali. I suspect it might, but then again, she might not share that in common with Jenny.

Anyway, I’ve used up my excuse for coming out here, my believable reason, but now I am going to do some digging, if I can get away with it. Just a little bit, and nothing that would hurt Johnny’s chances.

“Great, Ali. So, uh… you been having a good night?”

She groans quietly. “I was, but your girlfriend lured me out to cheerleading again earlier on, assuring me that it would all come back to me. It um… didn’t quite.”

“You okay?” I ask in concern.

“Yeah.” She chews her cheek and looks shamefaced. “Pulled my back a little, that’s all. Guess I’d better leave it to the experts.”

We share a grin and I turn to stare down at the beach.

“Ali, you know that Jenny doesn’t tell me, like, anything about what you talk about, right?”

There’s a pause from behind me, and then she says, “Then why do I feel like you’re getting at something?”

“Because I know you’ve been up here talking to my friend. And before you ask, he doesn’t tell me anything either.”

“So you know nothing at all, huh?”

“Zero. Zilch.”

I can sense she’s looking at me, and probably trying to work out whether I know more than I’m letting on.

“Well,” she says slowly, “it’s been nice to talk again. We’ve… we’re friends now, and I’m enjoying it.”

“I’m happy to hear that.”

Hopefully Ali won’t be able to tell _how_ happy, or that she’s basically just given me satisfaction that my idea has worked, or is starting to work. I stay very non-committed, because I know I could ruin it very quickly if Ali thought I was hinting that they could be more than friends again.

“We’re getting along like a house on fire, if I’m honest.”

I smile, because there’s a tone in her voice that’s exactly what needs to be there. After this, I am going to have a war with myself not to go and tell Johnny every word she’s said, just so he knows he’s on the right track.

“He’s a good guy. And he’s grown up a lot.”

“He is, and you’re telling me. I never thought we’d be able to work things out enough to start talking again. I’m not sure I understand how it’s happened.”

“It’s great, Ali.”

“He’s… he’s been trying to make up for his mistakes. You know, owning up to them.”

Good for you, Johnny. My friend hasn’t let me down, or himself.

“That doesn’t surprise me at all.”

“It does me,” Ali says quickly and then goes quiet. There’s a weighty silence, but I get the feeling she’s going to keep going.

When she does, it’s in a thoughtful voice. “But it’s meant a lot. It also makes me feel a lot of regret, because I’ve grown up, too. And we…”

Ali trails off and breathes in, and I can tell she’s said a little more than she meant to. I won’t make her dwell on it, because this is going absolutely, remarkably fucking well, and I don’t really need to do anything.

I school my features into a calm expression, and turn around.

“A case of bad timing?” I try to say lightly, gently.

“It’s fine…” She shrugs at me, and gives a little wistful smile. “That’s life.”

**Monday: Mid-Party**

Watching Ali during the match, whenever I wasn’t competing, has essentially made my dreams for the winter parties come true.

Perhaps she didn’t know to suspect me of surveilling her, but I have been. She might have thought she was safe, with Johnny so occupied as a referee, but her unguarded face has given away her entire game, and I’ll be honest, even though I was very excited about tonight’s demonstration, I’m finding it hard to even concentrate on it now.

My friend is going to have what he hasn’t even admitted he wants. I’m more confident about this than I have been about anything I can remember for a while.

I end up having a lot of fun with the guys, and it’s special for us to be back doing this: we can all feel it. We’re rusty, but we’re warming up, and it’s amazing to be back in our sport.

We all get some points, although it’s the Bobby Show, which is no surprise. It’s nice to see him shine, and I can see the proud smile from Johnny, who has always known, and I think felt guilty about, the way Bobby has been in his shadow.

After the bike ride earlier today, and what we all saw happen with Dutch’s bike, it doesn’t surprise me at all to hear Tina screaming out her support for him. And I don’t miss the way my friend has a secret little smile about that, as he returns to his corner, but I’m up next, so I can’t focus on that for long.

During the half time demonstration, the girls get a lot of vocal admiration from the room, and given that one of those is my girl up there, I make sure that the spectators know they’d better keep that at an appropriate level, and they can cut out the wolf-whistles.

Bobby’s admiration of Barbara’s flips is entirely silent, but I have to look away in near pain because he’s so damn obvious about it, it makes me cringe. There’s no way Barbara won’t notice him watching her that way, and I am completely lost about how she'll feel about it. All I know by now is, it is definitely one of two ways: furious, or over the moon.

And I’d never risk even a dollar gambling on which one.

Jenny and Barbara’s practice has paid off, because their impromptu show brings the house down.

*

I haven’t had time to watch too much for Ali during the second half, not that I really need to, since that’s settled, as far as I’m concerned.

I don’t _need_ any time to notice the way Dutch and Tina start exchanging glances and smiles, since they get more obvious with every moment or two, and I’m guessing that situation may well resolve tonight. It makes me very happy. I’ve got a good feeling about them even before there’s a them, because Dutch has a very different mood about him than he usually would with a girl, and with what I know of Tina, I think he may well have met his match in the best way.

We don’t manage to take Johnny down for long, although at least he doesn’t completely walk all over us during the paired attacks.

Ali is falling into the same trap as Bobby, which surprises me a lot, but again I guess she either doesn’t remember anyone can see her, or maybe she doesn’t even realise how she’s looking at Johnny.

I’ve seen her look at him like that before.

It started about four and a half years ago, and happened many times while they were dating, because it’s how a girl looks at the guy she’s with.

My hopes are pretty much taking off and leaving the ground right now, because I wonder if that match might be made tonight, too.

It doesn’t matter a lot if it isn’t, other than for my own anticipation, but there’s no single way on earth it isn’t happening some time.

That is, until disaster strikes.

In the way that bad timing has, sometimes you just get those moments that are worth writing about, just so you can remember _how bad_ they were.

Johnny hasn’t been scoring at my parties: I know what my friends have been up to, or haven’t, and this I know for sure. He’s had offers, many, although they have mostly petered out when it’s become clear he’s not looking for it. So of course, it has to be tonight, when he starts to possibly reconsider, because an old friend makes him a proposition.

I could give him the benefit of the doubt, and hope he’ll say no to Samantha, but given how fucking oblivious he can be when it comes to Ali, I can’t assume he’s noticed that she likes him. I _really, really_ can’t.

And if he hasn’t, he won’t know he’s about to blow his one and only shot of getting her back.

That much is clear by the sharp, sudden and painful confusion in Ali’s face as she watches them.

Samantha’s very sweet, and I don’t want to embarrass her: she has no idea about any of this going on, nor about my long-laid plans, so my thoughts race for the kindest way I can think of to interrupt this before it gets too far.

She has her hand inside his gi, when I walk right toward them and pretend I’m on my way to the patio.

“Hey!” I call, loudly enough to jolt them out of their moment. “Johnny, I need a hand. Do you mind?”

Johnny seems almost relieved to see me. They exchange some words, but I can see the mood has cooled fairly much immediately, thank god. Crisis averted, maybe, although I’ll need to watch out, in case it recurs.

Johnny follows me outside, and I’m breathing out my relief. When we get there, and I haven’t said anything more, he frowns at me, puzzled.

“What just happened?”

I give him a pointed look, which I know the idiot won’t grasp. “I saved you, from complete and utter destruction.”

“Hardly,” Johnny laughs. “Although, you’re right, I didn’t wanna go down that road with her, not really, so thanks.”

I cannot believe this guy sometimes. He’s always been a fool where Ali is concerned, and that’s sweet when they’re together, but Johnny, _we aren’t there yet, you imbecile._

“You have no idea, do you?”

“No idea about what?”

I sigh at the night sky, wondering if inspiration will come to me, and better yet to him. When it doesn’t, I say, “You can’t… you can’t possibly be that stupid, can you, Johnny?” even though he’s just proved me wrong.

“Hey. What the fuck?”

It’s just too much. If he can’t read my hints, and he can’t interpret how his ex-girlfriend is clearly having feelings for him again, perhaps I should give up my plan. I laugh, basically in despair.

“Oh my god. You _are,_ aren’t you? You mean, you seriously don’t know?”

Johnny looks angry, which couldn’t bother me any less. “You better tell me what you’re talking about, and preferably in the next five seconds.”

I cross my arms to close him off. “Nope, someone so stupid doesn’t deserve any help from me. If you didn’t notice Ali’s face just then, that's not my problem.”

With that, I leave my stupid friend where he is, hoping sense might come to him from somewhere, _anywhere._

“Hey!” he calls after me, which I ignore. “What face? _Hey!_ ”

I wave at him with scorn. When I get inside, Ali’s gone, because of course she is.

I wonder if she’s gone home, like the other night, and how deeply things have just been fucked up.

*

Later, after I’m changed, and once I know Ali _hasn’t_ left, and is in fact down on the beach by then, I relent a little.

From what Johnny and I have talked about, and with how Tommy’s been on his case, I guess I do know that he’s on some kind of misguided quest to not fall in love with Ali again.

There’d be nothing at all wrong with that, if not for the fact that it’s actually okay to let himself do it. Well, assuming the progress hasn’t just been obliterated.

But if I give him some credit, it’s actually a mature approach, that he likes Ali so much that he’d like to be her friend. If anything, it’s bodes well that he’s like that about her.

And he’s been telling himself this whole time that he’ll never get her back, because I think maybe he _had_ to tell himself that. So that he didn’t walk around with a hope that would kill him to have unfulfilled. I guess I was harsh with him before, but honestly, someone had to do something to interrupt that, so at least I can hold my head up about that.

It’s quite a while later when I’m on the patio, with Jenny, Barbara, and some others in a group. The girls have gotten changed into something warm, but they’re still basking in their performance glow, much like we are. I’d like to tell Jenny how good she looked tonight, but that will have to wait until later.

Dutch and Tina come up the steps. They’re wearing jackets, and they look like they’re on the way to another ride. They’re walking as close as anything, and Jenny shoots me a smile, as if I haven’t noticed them already. Dutch is self-conscious, maybe even nervous, which I hardly ever, ever see, running his hand through his hair. I don’t think he even has any idea he’s just walked past me.

But Tina has a focus in her eyes that seems unshakeable.

By the time they’re inside, even Barbara has joined in with us, shaking her head and smiling pretty widely, and Jenny holds up a hand for her friend to high-five.

*

I’m standing by myself at the top of the dunes, looking down at the beach at a particular spot, because it’s where Johnny and Ali were for the last part of tonight.

Somehow, not only was the crisis averted, which I maintain the credit for, but the situation turned in the exact opposite direction from the disaster it was hurtling toward at full speed.

I don’t know how he did it, and it hardly matters.

But I watched them. I watched them for a while, cos it was impossible not to.

Ali was lying there, looking at him like the sun shone from him again. Maybe even Johnny would have to admit he could see that if I asked him, which I won’t. I watched him turn over onto his side, and how he couldn't take his eyes off her, and how she didn't mind it for one single second, because she just looked _happy_. They were talking so close like that, for so long, that I would have believed it if they had come away as a couple. I half expected one of them to kiss the other.

But they didn’t.

We’re close now, I can feel it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking maybe 2 more chapters for my plot. It could be 3 :)


	5. It's Christmas Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again! This one spoils Malibu to Chapter 17.
> 
> Only two chapters to go after this, and they will guest star some more Malibu characters :)
> 
> Last time out we saw the karate party, and how close Johnny came to romance disaster there, and what Jimmy did to prevent it. Hope you like this one, in which we see Jimmy and Jenny have their Christmas dreams come true, and then Jimmy’s long-laid plan come to fruition XD
> 
> Thank you so much for reading along in this universe. Love to hear what you’re thinking about Jimmy’s story <3

**Tuesday: Two Days Before Christmas**

Jenny’s right: I did make our week busier.

We’ve been in a flurry today, although with everything that happened yesterday for our friends, neither of us have for one moment regretted having that party last night.

I’m taking today and tomorrow off work. This morning we made an early run to the shops for some extra gifts. By early, I mean that I was yawning while we walked through the carpark, because it wasn’t even truly sun-up yet, and also I had wondered if Jenny had taken a look in the study lately, at that gigantic pile in the corner that we’ve already purchased for family members. Evidently it wasn’t enough, so now there are _more_.

We’re home again after fighting our way through lines and crowds, and all the rest of the day is for preparation.

We start by finally putting the tree up, and it’s beautiful. We went out and got this huge one, maybe ten feet, and now Jenny’s standing on a chair to be able to decorate near the top. The baubles on the tree match the ones she’s used for the table pieces she’s been making: all gold and green, with silver highlights, which look a little like glistening snow.

“More tinsel?” she asks.

“We’re running low. You sure you don’t have enough already?”

The single raised eyebrow I get, brief, is enough that I remember I tend to defer to Jenny’s judgement about any visual things that aren’t art, and I grin.

“Right,” I say. “I’ll go check the boxes again, see if I’ve missed any.”

I see her smiling and laying out the garland she’s holding.

Today is so much fun, and I swear, it really, really isn’t because of that short little Christmas elf costume that Jenny’s wearing.

Okay, who am I kidding?

It’s _definitely_ that, but I’m also pretty sure I’d be having fun, even if she was wearing something else.

However as it is, when I come back with two last lonely silver strands to offer, I get her naughty smile as she bends down to me, and then the sight of her up on her tiptoes, her bare legs stretched long. It seems only sensible that I put my arms around her to guard her so she doesn’t fall off the chair, right?

She laughs lightly.

“Jimmy, we have so much to do.”

She comes back down onto the balls of her feet and turns to me. I hold at her waist and lift her down into my arms and she comes to me.

“Can’t we even spare a little time?” I suggest hopefully.

“Are you like this at work, too?” she teases.

“Well, I would be if you start visiting me.”

She rolls her eyes and takes hold of my hands, and I know I’ve talked her into it.

*

The afternoon is as productive as if we were in a beehive.

We spend enough hours in the kitchen that the fridge is pretty full, for our two coming events. Tomorrow, we will cook again, until we’ve made everything that can be made in advance, and leave just the minimum for Thursday morning.

I’ll admit I’m sick of tasting cranberry sauce now. The pies on the other hand, are life changing. I’ve tasted filling so delicious that I don’t think I’ll ever forget them: spiced apple, cherry, key lime, but the pecan mix before it is poured in is like eating liquid _gold_. Once again, I will be arguing with Jenny that we shouldn’t share that, and given that I know I won’t win, I’ll ask instead why we don’t eat that most nights of the week, on a regular basis.

Even Jenny’s ambrosia mix tastes better than it has a right to: she has a real gift for food, and I am a lucky man.

The weather on Thursday is going to be mild, but with possible rain, so we’ve decided to have the tables inside, and just open up the doors as far as we can. We can’t lay them out yet, since we still have the party tomorrow night, but Jenny had me measuring the dimensions to she can plan how she’ll put the two long tables.

We’re both in our element: me thinking about having our families here, hosting them, showing them the household that Jenny and I are more than capable of running together, and Jenny, so proud and excited about all the work she’s been doing finally about to be used for our Christmas.

Not one single detail has been left to chance.

We spend the evening wrapping gifts and drinking hot drinks together by the tree. She plays some happy Christmas songs, and once we’ve had some whisky in our hot chocolate, we end up singing along.

**Thursday: Christmas Night**

There’s just _so much_ food left.

We sent a lot of it away with our grateful guests, but we’re still set for days. It’s about eight now, and we’re in the kitchen eating leftovers together.

Jenny’s feeding me mouthfuls of pie, and next to us are the remains of some mac and cheese, the turkey and stuffing, and some of the seafood which we’re making a good headway into.

Jenny keeps leafing through the polaroids we took, both before and during lunch, full of happy family faces. The tables were immaculate, and I know it was Jenny’s happiest moment when her parents arrived, and then mine.

We greeted them at the door and showed them in, my parents too, as if they’d never been here, and when they stepped into the Christmas room, they all basically just covered her with compliments about her creations.

The tree, the tables with their fully matching tall centerpieces, plate settings, napkins and rings, the beautiful line of chairs with neatly sewed golden bows, the subtle highlights around the room on shelves or cabinets: statues and santas and tiny nativity scenes, the golden ribbons hanging in arcs from the central lights, radiating out in the room above our heads.

It all looked divine, and the photos haven’t really done it justice, but that’s the way of photos.

And Jenny was just beautiful about her hosting; not like some people I’ve seen who get uptight when something goes wrong. My youngest cousins ended up untying her gold bows from their seats after lunch, and using them in their homemade puppet show, and Jenny only smiled and clapped her hands, because for her the day was about everyone enjoying it, most of all.

I was so, so tempted to make our announcement.

I watched her serve the food – well, I was helping her with that – I watched her take care of drinks, ask people how they were going with everything, get into conversations about people’s lives, people who she didn’t know well until today.

I watched her graciously, humbly and happily take every compliment she was due, and there were many that came to her, and even then, I don’t think they were nearly enough.

It made everything so worthwhile, that I want to do it again next year. It was just the best possible Christmas, and we, mostly Jenny, did it all.

Standing there with my arm around her when it was time to say goodbye, I was the proudest man. It was hard not to just come out and tell everybody that she’s going to be my wife. I couldn’t love her any more than I do.

I need to talk to her about it, but I think we need to move up our timeline. I feel like our parents are ready.

*

Once we’ve tidied away what we intend to today, we sit by the tree again and listen to old fashioned carols while we drink egg nog.

We’ve saved our gifts until now, and there they are, just the three things under the tree.

“Do you want to go first?” I ask her, intensely curious about the single present that I don’t know the contents of. It’s tiny, like only a few inches across, and it’s shaped like a box.

Jenny smiles and sits up on her knees to reach for it.

“You’re not easy to buy for, Jimmy.”

“You know you can just give me a promise to make that pie again, right?”

She grins, and I add, “Or that savory mousse. You _really_ need to make that.”

“I did. On Sunday, remember?”

“Yes, exactly. That’s four days ago, now, technically almost five, since it’s nearly midnight.”

Jenny places the box into my hands and sits down to watch me open it.

“Well, hopefully you won’t mind _this_ , at least until I cook those again for you.”

I open the wrapping to find a black box with gold trim, and when I open that up, there’s a signet ring inside, resting in a velvet niche.

“Jenny,” I say, smiling warmly at her. “I _love_ it.”

“Yeah?” she says with relief. “You didn’t have one, and I thought it would look really nice on you.”

I pick the gold ring out of the box. It has a tiny black stone set into the large front face, and inside the band I make out some writing.

“I engraved it with our initials and the year. I thought maybe it could remind you of our first Christmas together.”

“It’s perfect,” I tell her firmly, and slide it onto my pinky. I’m unsurprised that it fits perfectly, even if I’m intrigued about _how_ she did that.

“Gold, to go with our wedding rings,” she explains, and that thought makes me feel a deep peace. We share the same dream of our future, and I have no idea how I’m lucky enough to have found her.

“Speaking of which. I want to tell our parents soon.”

She lights up. “Thank god. I was thinking that, too. I think… they’re going to be able to take the news, don’t you?”

“That’s how I feel. And, if not, well, they’ll get used to it.”

Jenny nods, determined. “They’ll have to.”

I smile at her. “Are you going to open your gifts? How about that small one first?”

Jenny picks up the flat square present, and when she opens it up to find a single shiny kitchen tile, she gives me a puzzled look, which I don’t buy for one second.

“You can forget about even trying that. You know exactly what I’m saying. You can do the damn kitchen, like you want.”

My beautiful girl has the grace to look at least slightly sheepish as she gives her clear laugh.

“Jimmy, I don’t have to. It’s your house, after all.”

“It’s our house, or it will be very soon. And I have to admit, that splash is hideous. I’ll be glad when I don’t have to look at it any longer.”

She sighs happily. “Well, if you’re sure. Are you… do I need to use… this?” She holds up the plain white tile.

She’s trying her best to be diplomatic, and I can’t help but chuckle.

“No, it’s just a symbol. You have free reign. Well, within reason, but I trust you.”

“That’s pretty much the best present you could give me.”

“Well, have a look in that other one too, please, Jenny, seeing as how it took me a lot more effort than buying that tile did.”

She’s reaching over for the large gift, and I think the frame is probably a giveaway.

She tears the paper away to reveal the painting. It’s from a photo I took of her, but it looks a lot better on canvas.

Jenny’s got her back partly to the viewer, feet at the shoreline out front, and she’s bending over to pick up a shell, the tips of her hair blowing wild in the breeze. Behind her the sunset is starting, lighting the water with shimmering lines of reflected shine.

When the real Jenny looks at me, she’s silent, and her face has curled in on itself like she’s overwhelmed. She slowly shakes her head and lays the painting down on the carpet, and comes to sit across my lap.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” she asks me quietly.

*

We’re on the sofa together, curled up, and in love.

It’s really only now, after the activity that hasn’t really stopped since Sunday is done, that I have time to think.

The Bobby and Barbara situation resolved last night, even though it still seems _impossible_ to believe in it. Barbara is a far better player than I had realised, and I credit it highly.

With how unsurprised Jenny was, I think she might have been her confidante about it for a long time, but I understand that. I mean I know how close they are, with going to college together.

Our two friends just looked so _happy_ , I loved it. And I honestly can’t see how there’s any way that that isn’t going to work out for them. They’re as perfectly matched as Dutch and Tina, and I know they’re going to treat each other so well.

“Do you think Johnny knew?” Jenny asks me, in a nice sleepy, content voice.

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to work out. He should have been surprised, as much as we were, well _me_ ,” I say pointedly.

But Jenny refuses to look even a little guilty, and nor can I get her to even stir from her subdued state.

After a month or more of build-up, and a full week of _go, go, go,_ my girl’s batteries have finally run down, and she’s in resting mode.

“Hey,” she says, “ _you_ didn’t tell me Bobby had a crush, either.”

I scoff, “Oh, like there was ever any question of that?”

Jenny grins and bites her cheek. “You’re right. I kept telling her that, for weeks, but she was hard to convince.”

“Why would _Johnny_ know, though?” I ask, going back to that. “I mean obviously about Bobby, sure, but how come he knew anything about Barbara, when I didn’t?”

I’ll admit, I have taken it a little personally, perhaps.

I sigh in thought. “You know, come to think of it, he’s been more aware of a lot of things just lately.”

Jenny nods in agreement. “He definitely has. Part of his general growing up?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Something about that doesn’t convince me that’s the whole story, but maybe I’ll never know it.

Jenny smiles and cuddles into me.

“What did you think about them out there?”

Last night, we witnessed Johnny and Ali flirting up a storm which began in the drinking game, and finished in their own little private moment on the patio.

“I think that it made having the party the night before Christmas worthwhile, all on its own. I’m on cloud nine about it.”

She makes a happy sound. “Me too. Ali’s talking to us about it a little, but not really, and I can’t really tell you much anyway. But, Jimmy… I think they’re nearly there.”

I bite the bullet. “He’s… in love with her again.”

“Yep.” She doesn’t seem at all surprised to hear.

“And I think Ali can probably tell.”

“I think so, too. The fact that she looked so happy sitting out there with him: that says it all, doesn’t it?”

**Wednesday: New Year’s Eve mid-party**

Well, I don’t know what to think about my friend.

I’m sure Johnny’s trying his best, but honestly, he’s hopeless. Ali is so into him; he _must_ be able to see that, so how come nothing has happened?

They were alone on Saturday for _hours._ Bobby and Barbara were gone with them awhile at first, but they came back arm in arm, and still no sign of our other friends. The two of them seemed surprised Johnny and Ali hadn’t come back yet, and me and Jenny saw the look they exchanged.

Jenny asked Barbara where Ali was, and Barbara got a little hesitant about that, which I now definitely know means she’s being evasive. Bobby kinda shrugged at me, like he didn’t really know what was happening. I think the four of us might have started to get our hopes up for the ex-couple, the longer it went on.

We even sat down there for a while and hung out. Tommy joined us, although he was in a strange mood: quiet, not himself.

After midnight, Johnny and Ali came back.

The sound came of her laughing at something he was saying, and we heard both of them talking, before they got down to us, where we were sitting with some torches.

There was something so different about them that my heart soared for one second: they were at ease, totally comfortable with each other, and I saw Ali push him when he said something to tease her. They were beyond doubt flirting, and I remember thinking, oh thank _god._

But then, I could tell from the way Johnny looked at Bobby, that nothing had happened.

Honestly, I feel like I’ve been waiting right on the edge for a week, _more_ , now, and it’s driving me crazy.

And here we are tonight again, out up at the canyon.

Johnny’s been in a good mood; he even gave a little speech about me holding the parties before we left my house for the ride, which I really liked. I wonder if he and my friends remember how much they teased me about it, back on that first night. Well, some worse than others.

And _now_ look where we are. Two of them have girlfriends, three if we count Tommy, but there’s been something pretty cooled about him and Erin today, and I suspect we’ve just about reached the expected end of that.

Ali seems to want to talk to Jenny in the kind of way girls do, and I got the message to leave them alone, and so I head over to Johnny where he’s standing, over by the railing of the lookout.

As usual, he’s pretending not to watch Ali too much, although there really isn’t any point in bothering, considering how they’re behaving with each other now, which seems to be really flirty. Also, nearly everyone is talking about them when they aren’t around, and wondering why they aren’t back together.

I feel sorry for him.

“So, let me guess,” I say. “The two of you have worked out you still have feelings, and finally worked out that the other one likes you back, but you’re still having trouble getting it together?”

I’m teasing him because I can’t help it, but I do want to encourage him.

“Lay off.” I see the way his eyes move to her. He’s got a determination there, which I like.

“I never knew you were this clueless, Johnny. Do you need me to draw you a map?”

“There’s a couple things that are stopping her, that’s all.” He gets a pensive expression, and I wonder what’s going on in there, and what Ali’s said.

I ask gently, “Stopping her for how long?”

“Don’t know.” Johnny shrugs, resigned, and leans one arm on the railing. “Maybe not long. Could be forever, how the fuck should I know?”

“So, you’re just gonna wait?”

“What choice do I have? Besides, I’d wait the rest of my life, for her.”

There’s no pain in how he says it; it’s resolve, it’s acceptance. It’s him having a goal and having made up his mind.

The good news is that there’s one way that things tend to go when Johnny’s made up his mind about them.

I salute him with my beer bottle. “It’s good that you realise that about yourself,” I tell him proudly. “Makes me have hope for you.”

The warmth in his smile makes me feel in a tangible way how much our friendship means to us both.

*

I see them dancing. I think we _all_ do.

It would actually be really hard to say which one of them is looking more lovestruck than the other: it’s the kind of thing you could argue about for hours, and come to no agreement.

Johnny just won’t stop smiling at her, staring, and Ali’s right inside his space, sometimes holding his hands, sometimes with her arms around his neck, and always with this shy smile, although with Ali, shyness doesn’t mean what you might expect.

We also all see Dutch and Tina dancing, and it’s a lot of fun. That happiness is an amazing look on my friend, and I have to pinch myself that he’s where he is given that it’s less than a month ago when we had the first party, and I think back to all the things he said and did that day.

I lose track of Johnny and Ali, and then later on Jenny’s motioning in a panic, tapping her watch at me and saying something I can’t hear over the loud music.

I’m torn away from looking at the puzzling sight of Tommy and Susan talking, but Jenny needs me. I work it out based on her miming, and race over to turn the music off.

She pulls me into her while we start the countdown.

*

I’ve given up on ever seeing Johnny again tonight. Apparently, he and Ali like to be by themselves at my parties, which I can only take as a good sign.

I assume they are here still, somewhere, but I’ve had a lot to drink, and I’m happy, and I can’t really worry about the good or bad implications of them being gone, presumably together. I’m not drunk: I’m not stupid enough to leave this bunch unsupervised again this late in the night, but I am _happy_ , and so are most people around us. There’s a party mood more than ever since Dutch decided to strip off, and it still makes me laugh to think about how basically _everyone_ was into it.

My happiness takes the edge off of being worried about how messy the house is getting too, a thought I am able to discard fairly easily in my current mood.

It must be after one in the morning when I see Ali, at last. She’s coming up from the beach, even though I didn’t really know anyone was down there at the moment, other than that party next door.

She’s got this look of focus as she walks through the crowd, and then I see Johnny come up, and he’s about five or six steps behind her, following her.

He’s staring at her, following her. There’s this look of contentment, this bliss on his face, like nothing I’ve seen on him for years, and I just know.

_I know._

Ali turns around and waits for him and I hold my breath. I think maybe one or two others might be watching them too.

Johnny walks slowly up to Ali and holds her face, right as she’s putting her arms around him, and I feel like I’ll burst from the way they’re smiling at each other, knowing and looking like they’re at home again, like the last two years are now just a bad memory.

I can’t help but cheer, which is followed almost immediately by Bobby and some others, and pretty much everyone on the patio is joining in while Johnny and Ali kiss. People are shouting all kinds of stuff, and some of my guests are running out from inside to see what’s up, but for all the notice that couple are paying us, we might as well not even be here.

Jenny’s hand slips into mine, and she looks so happy, eyes shining at me, it makes me feel it even more.

“We did it,” she says, over the cheers and whistles, which are still going, because Johnny and Ali are smiling and still standing there in the middle, in their moment.

“No,” I reason. “ _They_ did.”


	6. All Good Things Come to an End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading :) This is the last chapter that covers Malibu; after that we go beyond into a couple of later months, here and in Chapter 7. You’ll also get a sneak peak into some storylines that will be covered in other Malibuniverse works!
> 
> This one: includes the matchmaking masterminds going head to head, the finish of the parties, and life resuming for Jimmy and Jenny, after the parties.

**Thursday: New Year’s Day, post-party**

Jenny and I slept in our bed last night, or more precisely, this morning.

It’s a cold day. By the time we get up and come downstairs, a lot of people have gone home, but my friends are all still here. They’ve come back up from the beach, some of them dragging blankets to wrap around them. The mood starts pretty quiet and subdued: it was a huge night and none of us have had much sleep.

We share a big breakfast, even though it’s after midday by the time Jenny has it ready. We eat, sitting together on the patio at two tables. A couple people – Tommy, Steve, Ali – have got bad hangovers, but honestly given how wild the party was, I think we all did pretty well. Dutch and Tina look unscathed, are I think they’re enjoying the scattered comments they get about their entertainments last night.

Ali’s sitting there with a pair of Jenny’s sunglasses on, turning her face queasily away from the heapings of hash brown and links that her friends are eating in the surrounding seats.

Barbara notices, and gives her a commiserating smile. “Can I go round up some fruit or juice for you? Might sit a little better?”

Johnny’s up on his feet, pushing his chair back.

“I’ll get it.” He shoots me a look, tips his head back. “If that’s okay to do?”

“Sure,” I say, with a smile. “Have a look in the fridge. And there’s some other stuff in the bowl on the countertop.”

Ali takes his hand and holds it, weakly smiling up at him where he stands next to her. He kisses it, and she only lets go when he starts to walk away to head inside.

I end up following him, since he wouldn’t know where to find a glass or a plate, and I pop by the bathroom, and add some Tylenol to the tray he’s preparing.

There’s a breakthrough later on: Jenny and I actually get a little bit of help with the tidying up before people leave, at least with the mess on the beach and in the living room. So I guess wonders will never cease.

**Saturday 5: Mid-party**

I figure it will be hard to get Johnny by himself tonight.

I understand. If it was me and Jenny, I’m not sure I could’ve gotten up the energy to come to this party in the first place, because we all know Ali’s leaving in the morning. So it means a lot to me that he’s here.

But I do get a few moments with him, and it finds us on the beach, not long after sunset, when the sky is still kinda light.

Tommy’s walking back towards us, while Erin heads up a little way, to where a few of her friends are. I wave at Tommy and he waves back, but he veers away from us for the steps, and he’s staring down at the sand on his way there, clearly thinking about something.

“I’d say those two are nearly done,” I comment with a little sadness.

Johnny looks resigned as he watches Tommy until he’s out of our sight and then turns back to the ocean. He lies back on the sand, resting on his elbows.

“Yeah… we’ve seen it coming.”

“We have,” I agree. “It’s weird… you’ll never believe this, but I saw Tommy and Susan talking on New Year’s.”

Johnny’s shoulders come up in the slightest shrug. “I’d believe it, cos I saw that too.”

“At midnight?” I query.

“Huh?”

I smile and it turns into a laugh. “Look, Johnny, I don’t want to ask you where you got to, with Ali that night…”

He throws me a smirk. “Then don’t.”

“No, it’s just… you weren’t around when I saw them talking. Tommy, I mean.”

Now Johnny gives a puzzled frown and sits back up. “But they were talking at dawn?”

“Maybe.” I shrug. “ _I_ didn’t see that. I saw them at midnight. And that makes it even more interesting, wouldn’t you say?”

We exchange a long look, but then Johnny shakes his head and purses his lips. “I mean, it’s a great thought. Even with how much Susan doesn’t like me…” A smirk appears, and then he laughs darkly. “I’d love to see it, for him. He’d never fucking admit it, but I’m sure he’d take her back in a heartbeat, if he had a shot. But I just don’t see how.”

“Well, you’d be the expert on that.” I raise my eyebrows.

“Okay, you’re right,” he concedes, “but _still_. Don’t you think we’d know, if there was anything? Would… would Tommy tell us?”

“Exactly,” I say. “ _Would_ he?”

“Fuck.”

I laugh softly. “Hey, if it’s true, I’m sure we’ll hear about it sooner or later.” I watch Johnny real carefully when I say the next thing. “Like we did with Bobby, right? And Dutch?”

“Right,” Johnny agrees, and now he isn’t meeting my eyes, and boy, that is _interesting._

I’m on the verge of saying something, maybe a question, I’m not sure, because I’d really love to get to the bottom of this. But he turns it right back onto me, without knowing.

“Jimmy, you _know_ , don’t you? Like, if you hadn’t had us over this winter, me, Ali… nothing would’ve ever…”

“Don’t say ever,” I gently suggest. “It’s meant to be. It was time.”

Johnny smiles at the ocean, which is starting to darken to its night time inky hue. “Yeah. I mean, I know you didn’t do it for that reason or anything, but like you said. It was… I guess it was perfect timing in the end.”

I sigh as innocently as I can, and it’s difficult.

“It was.”

We’re both distracted by a new figure coming down the steps behind us, and it’s Ali. Johnny’s already jumping up, and nodding at me. I smile my goodbye and he jogs across the sand to her.

*

It’s nice to be invited into the soccer game, this time, rather than have to be upstairs keeping an eye on Dutch, but I’ve got a lot more time tonight anyway since we got the caterers again.

Tina’s got that first thing covered these days, I think with a smile, since she’s sitting on the sidelines and watching him kinda like how she did during the tournament.

Because my team has got my friends, especially Bobby, and people like Steve, too, it hardly seems like a fair match, but we have a lot of fun. Greg gets his share of attention from the crowd since he is the absolute star of the underdog team.

I get a fire going after that and sit with a bunch of guys, trying to block out some of the things they say about girls, which I wish they wouldn’t. It’s around that time that Tommy lets me and Johnny know that things with Erin have finished up. I’m disappointed, for both of them, but for some reason I can’t get the feeling to stick, not as much I would have thought.

I mean with how Erin’s whispering and laughing with Meredith and Nicole, it doesn’t seem to have landed a blow on her, and maybe she was smart enough to know what she was getting into. I don’t know her well enough to be sure, but thank god Tommy doesn’t lead them on, I guess.

But the other thing is, I just can’t fight this weird sneaking suspicion I have, that there’s something developing that I don’t think any of my friends have noticed, well except Johnny, maybe.

*

I don’t actually have to wait that long to find out, only a couple hours.

My goodbye with the guys happens before Johnny goes, so that we’re all here for it. It hurts; I won’t pretend it didn’t. We’ve been exactly like the old days this winter, with maybe the only difference being we’re all less stupid than we were. I think I can trust in what we’ve rebuilt by hanging out, and everyone seems committed to maintaining it.

But we’ve got our lives, our work, our study, our families, other friends, and now most of us have a girl. I know it’s a lot.

Adults tend to let friends fall down the list as a priority. I’ve seen it. But when you meet the kind of friends I did at high school, you really can’t let that happen. If I did, I’d regret it for my whole life.

So I’m glad we’ve already made our first plan to hang out, although things will surely get tricky while I finish night school, which goes until June. That seems so far away I don’t really know how to imagine plans for beyond that, except that by then, I am quite certain my fiancée will be living at the beach house.

It’s when Jenny and I are in the kitchen that we have the chance to chat with Susan, because she decides to help us with the clean up tonight, and we’re both very appreciative. In the end, she even sends us away so that we can enjoy some time with whoever is still here.

The conversations all seem to have this undeniable sense of finality to me, but that might just be the slight edge of melancholy I’m feeling, especially now that Johnny’s gone, signally the break up of our group. I’m determined not to finish this winter on that note for myself, not after everything Jenny’s done to make this work for me, for us. Not after all it took to get Johnny and Ali back together.

I pull Jenny upstairs, and we sit together in our sunroom, in the near-dark.

She understands how I’m feeling, because she always understands me.

“You did it, Jimmy.”

“ _We_ did,” I suggest, but she places her finger on my lips and I can make out her tight smile.

“You’ve already thanked me for my work, even though you know how much I _loved_ doing it, and you know how much fun I had with my friends. So you’ve covered that. It’s my turn now. You are incredible: I see what you’ve done for everyone, and for him.”

My throat thickens, and I slide my arm around her. She leans into me and finds my hand, her fingers toying with the ring on my right pinky, my Christmas present.

“I love you so _much_ for it,” she says fervently, and it’s all I can do not to be affected by my emotion.

“Thank you.”

“There’s not a single man in the world I could ever care about the way I do you. I still have to pinch myself that you want to be my husband.”

“Well, you better get used to it, because I’m going to be.”

Jenny smiles and lifts her face to me, and I find her and bring her close.

*

After we’ve said goodbye to Dutch and Tina, and a couple others we pass in the living room, Jenny wants to go and see how much work there is still to do.

Before we can get to the kitchen, Susan emerges. She has a very strange smile on her face, almost like she’s seen something hard to believe, and when Tommy comes out behind her, he stops in his tracks when he sees us.

A sceptical look passes between them; Tommy scratches his head, drops his hand, makes a nervous gesture on the side of his leg.

Susan gives a resigned sigh, turning back to us. “So.”

Tommy breaks into this hesitant grin. “Yeah.”

“You’re _kidding?”_ Jenny asks, incredulous, ecstatic, beating me to it.

Tommy looks wary. Watching Susan like she’s a creature at bay, and he’s not sure of whether she’s planning an escape, or possibly even an attack, he slowly slips his arm around her shoulders. Susan rolls her eyes, holding back her smile and her arm comes up around his waist.

**February**

We’re down on the sand this Saturday morning, Jenny and me, and the sun is starting to get the day going properly.

It’s too cold for a swim today, so we’re just walking, hand in hand, watching a couple boats out there on the sea. January ended up being a busy month at work, since a staff member suddenly quit, and me and Dad had to take up the slack. He’s in the hiring process now, which will help. Luckily, I haven’t had too much due at school yet, but that’s starting to pick up now the semester’s underway properly.

Already the memories of winter are fading, and it makes me sad.

I have to keep reminding myself to hold onto what’s important, what was achieved: me and the guys are hanging out every week now, finding some day and time that we can all work with, taking turns about who has to drive the furthest. Sometimes our girls join us, well, everyone except Ali; sometimes they do their own thing together while we hang out, and sometimes it’s just the five of us.

I’ve been making some phone calls to get information for spring break, and now we need to make up our minds, and tell the others, so we can get our bookings in, before we miss out. Of course, Las Gaviotas isn’t as busy as some of the other towns in Baja, which is why we’ve chosen it.

Jenny is back to only staying with me on the weekend, too.

We’re planning to change that. At, or maybe even _by_ , the end of this semester, she’s going to move in, and hopefully with the approval of all the parents. I guess we’ll have to see how our announcement goes tonight.

“How are you feeling?” she asks me, when we’re about halfway back home.

“Nervous. You?”

She squeezes my hand and comes against me while we’re walking, so our hips start to touch sometimes.

“It’s going to be okay, Jimmy. Have some faith in them.”

“Easy for you to say. You’ve known your dad for eighteen years.”

Jenny grins. “Dad likes you, and more importantly for him, he approves of you. You know that.”

She’s right; it took me a while, but I have won Graham over, and it’s something I’m proud of. I still remember how intimidated I was the first time I met him, and he shook my hand so firmly it almost hurt. I’ve always wondered whether there was a message in it, but now that I know him better, if there was, it was only ever well-meant. Jenny is the jewel of his heart, and I get it. I feel that way about her too, only in a different way.

She’s the kindest and most giving person I’ve ever met, hard-working, but she’s also so much fun. And she has a fierce determination about her, about getting what she wants for herself or for us, that I just adore.

I can picture how it could feel for her dad, worried about some guy coming along whose intentions might not be good. Still, I wonder if tonight will be a setback in my relationship with him or not. I’ll admit, I am afraid of his reaction, and I will be, right up until we’ve done it, I think.

“Whether that remains true after I announce that I’m stealing his daughter, I guess we’ll see.”

She drops her grip and slips her arm around me instead, and I pull her comfortingly close under mine.

“And the house?” she asks.

“If there’s one thing I’m not really worried about, it’s that. Mom and Dad have already started to see it; I know they have. You’ve won them over better than anyone in the world could have.”

*

The six of us are around the long table in the dining room.

Above us, the modern chandelier throws warm white light over the polished table. I’ve got some classical music playing in the other room, and it’s providing a nice background atmosphere for us in here, subtle and relaxing. The settings for tonight are all _perfect._ Jenny likes to use the crockery that is designed for each job, and she gets so into it, that it feels like being at a restaurant.

She and I sit at opposite ends of the table, since it is our dinner and my house, and the fact that this passed without comment from my parents is a really good sign. Dad shook my hand when he got here, and Mom handed us some after-dinner chocolates, and it is for all the world like they’re seeing me as the man of the house. When they walked through, I saw their proud smiles about how the place looks.

We have all four parents sitting between us along the sides of the table. Jenny has done one of her stunning dinners again. We started with a bisque, and the following courses also took advantage of local seafood, presented in such fashionable ways that the plates look pretty enough you almost feel bad about eating them.

My Dad shares a lot in common with Jenny’s, and they have been talking up a storm across the table. Dad is a little older, although he has more hair, and they both wear glasses. Jenny’s mom is the only person in the room who doesn’t have brown hair; she keeps her blond bob above her shoulders, well styled, and always set off by elegant earrings.

She favors skirt suits, whereas my mom likes her dresses, and they have less of an easy time chatting than the fathers do, but I’ve noticed them working toward finding shared interests, and they are friendly to each other.

Graham has been full of compliments tonight. He raises his wine glass at me, for perhaps the fourth time.

“I must say, young man, that you and my daughter are running an impressive house here. Any doubts we might have had about your maturity are a very distant memory.”

I smile, because he always calls me ‘young man’, and thank him. When you first meet her dad, you think he’s kinda pompous, but he’s actually a pleasant man; he just has a refined way of speaking from his upbringing.

“Jimmy’s one of a kind,” Jenny says, flashing me a grin.

“Yes,” says Cynthia, and she’s talking to my mom. “Our daughter has found a true gem in your son. You must be very proud of him.”

“Of course,” Mom says warmly. “When he asked about living here, I don’t even think we had to spend a day thinking about it. We just knew… we knew Jimmy would do it as well as he is.”

I’m filled with pride at her words. “Thanks, Mom.”

“Well, he’s a lucky man, too,” Dad adds. “Your daughter could be the finest chef in LA if she decided to train, have no doubt.”

Jenny’s parents both warm to the praise, and Jenny is glowing too, since her cooking is one of the things she’s most proud of, even though she only does it for fun.

Having our parents speak of us this way bodes very well for the night’s announcement, and I can tell by Jenny’s expression that she thinks so, too. We let the meal continue.

I’m very happy that the pecan pie is being served for dessert, although of course Jenny decided to also make homemade coffee ice cream to serve with it, which sends us all into raptures.

My dad is leaning back in his seat, and I can tell he’s resisting the temptation to rub his stomach in satisfaction. I serve some of his favourite after dinner wine, including a small glass to Jenny and I, since her parents don’t mind that in moderation, now.

“I’d like to give a toast to our guests,” I announce. “It’s a big moment when children become old enough to host their parents to dinners.”

“And _what_ a dinner,” my dad adds, raising his glass again.

“May I add,” says Graham. “It is a privilege to see two young people setting out on such good lives together. We are proud of how hard you work in and outside of the home.”

“And the way you look after each other,” Mom adds.

“Thank you, everyone,” Jenny says. She looks at my parents. “Thank you for trusting me to live in with Jimmy sometimes, trusting me in your home.”

“Not at all, my dear,” Mom says warmly. “We… I think it makes us feel better, actually, to think of the two of you here together.”

She gives Dad a querying look and he nods.

“Couldn’t imagine the house in two finer pairs of hands,” he adds. “With the Christmas you did, and hosting your friends during the winter… you’ve shown yourself more than worthy of our trust.”

“It’s good to hear you say that, Dad,” I say in a clear voice, intended to get everybody’s attention.

Once I do, I go on, and I make sure to include all four parents. “Because I’d like Jenny to move in here. We’re ready for the next stage of our lives together.”

I see my parents smile slightly, exchanging a look, silently communicating to decide what their joint feeling about this will be, but my heart sinks when I see how Graham is looking at Jenny.

“Now, darling… you know the last thing we want to do is rain on your parade, but…”

He trails off delicately.

“It’s not that we’re _very_ traditional…” Cynthia adds meaningfully, almost apologetically, and I can see my Mom frowning.

I sigh a little and nod at Jenny. We both expected some resistance. It’s her turn tonight, because I’m going to get to be the one to tell our friends in a couple weeks, when we throw another dinner party, in March.

“Well, if you’re worried about Jimmy and I living in sin, you won’t have to for long. He’s asked me to marry him.”

She’s got this huge smile on her face, cheeky, because she knows she will have caught her parents off guard a bit, and she’s right: you could hear a pin drop for a few seconds, well, assuming you can hear it over the sounds of Strauss coming in from the living room stereo.

Then Cynthia smiles, and I can see relief in it; Graham still seems shocked. He looks at me, and at his daughter and back to me.

“I’m sorry,” I say diplomatically. “I would have observed the custom of asking you, but we felt all four of you would think we were too young, so we have kept it a secret until now. However, I would do it now. Would you do me the honor of hearing me ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage?”

Out of the corner of my eye I see my parents smiling. They’re on board, totally, and I _love_ them for it. And they realise I need to get this done properly before they say anything.

Graham coughs, and clears his throat.

“Well, I will be honest and say I hadn’t seen this coming, yet.”

He’s quiet for a moment. Cynthia doesn’t move, because she is an elegant woman, sitting with perfect posture, but even so, somehow I just know with total certainly that the silent message she is sending her husband is as good as if she was nudging him.

I think I might like her.

Graham sighs heavily and looks at Jenny. “You’ve been keeping a secret from me, my darling, and now I’ve been caught by surprise.”

Jenny says meekly, “I’m sorry, Daddy. Jimmy and I thought if we waited a little while, you’d be more likely to say yes.”

Graham gives a strained smile. “I can hardly say no, can I?”

She smiles slightly. “You’re saying yes?”

“Of course I’m saying yes. Although I do wonder if I would be able to stop you if I said no.”

Graham’s looking at me by the time he says that, so he misses the little flash in Jenny’s eyes. He’s not at _all_ far off-base, but this is the way Jenny would much prefer it, and it looks like we _have_ it.

My mom clasps her hands together, wringing them joyfully.

“Oh, _honey_ ,” she says to me. “Congratulations.”

“Really?” I say, feeling a grin I can’t fight.

“What could we possibly object to?” Dad adds. “Jimmy. James. If this is what you want to do, I have no doubt you’ll do it well, like everything else you do at work and at home.”

He gets to his feet, and Graham is only a second behind him.

They toast us again, and Jenny and I smile at each other, and I do my best to stop my heart from bursting with happiness.


	7. A Match Made in Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> Here's the last part of Jimmy's story, told in his own words. He will still appear in Malibu in Miniature, and in King Karate's upcoming work 'Rising Sun', so you will get some more glimpses into his life with his friends and with Jenny, in those.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading. It was a total treat to write Jimmy, and I would love to do it again, from his POV. I hope this chapter hits the final marks for you. Thank you!
> 
> _for Jimmy fans, you will find him in my upcoming Secret Title new long work: a Gen fic that features a Bobby/Johnny romance, but is a friendship & coming of age fic about the five Cobras (much as Malibu is). I am still writing, and plan to complete the story before posting. I'm nearly 70k into what might end up being ~100k, maybe longer, so I am getting there :) Hopefully see you soon for that! Jimmy has a great plot/s of his own, and it's a lot of fun to see him work through it._

We’re back in our dining room, and it’s the middle of March.

Jenny decided on a more informal vibe tonight, although I wonder if it’s just that she doesn’t trust our friends with the fine china. I’m not sure I do, not en masse like this.

The table looks like a medieval banquet in some ways, simply because there are so many of us in here eating: my four friends and their girls – Ali’s down for the weekend, just so she can come tonight – plus the rest of Ali’s group, which now includes their partners that have stuck around for the last two months. So Greg has Samantha, and Connie has Freddy, which leaves only Nicole and Aaron unattached.

Sensitive to what it might be like for them to be in a room full of couples, Jenny decided to mix the seating up, so it doesn’t stand out so much.

We’re not doing multiple courses tonight. I helped Jenny with her cooking, and we made a whole bunch of dishes that we think our friends will like: pot roast, tuna mornay, fried shrimp, bread rolls, homestyle vegetables with enough butter that I’ve got the phone number of my doctor ready to use if needed, and plenty more besides. Simple food, but at Jenny’s level, which essentially makes them a new dish, I’m learning.

We’re sharing them from bowls and platters along the table, and our friends are not being shy about taking more of what they’re enjoying. And Jenny of course has her secret weapons in reserve, her desserts.

I’m loving this. There’s something about sitting down to share a meal that makes me feel like I have a home to share with my friends. It’s different to fun parties, and cocktail food, and it’s also just our closest friends here: the people that mean the most to us.

It’s also really nice to have Ali with us, because she’s been missing from our hangouts. Watching her laughing with her friends, with Barbara at her side, is great, and I don’t miss the way her eyes shine every time she looks at Johnny, either. It’s the first time I’ve seen them together since the last night we had here, and he has changed.

Maybe he always was a fool for her, was always crazy about her even when he thought he’d stopped, but this is something different. Now it’s the demeanour of a man who’s found the person he’s going to be with for the rest of his life, somehow I just know it. There’s an assurance in him, a confidence, a satisfaction in the way he smiles at her, like he knows he’s got his deepest desire and she’s not going to be going anywhere.

It’s hard to take in for me, seeing it suddenly, in such full form.

I’m not the only one who’s noticed: Bobby smiles at me, and I realise he sees it, too. I nod at him. We don’t need to say anything, but he’s feeling as happy as I am right now.

“Been missing your parties,” he says.

“Yeah, you got used to the steady supply of good food and drink,” Barbara says fondly teasing.

“Hey, you know as well as I do what we’re facing in the dining hall.”

Jennifer grimaces. “That kind of talk is better away from the table, don’t you think? Some of us are trying to eat.”

The three of them laugh, and Bobby shakes his head at her. “Honestly though, your food is…” He looks at me. “Jimmy, explain how this is even possible?”

I smile smugly. “I get to eat like this all the time when Jenny’s with me.”

Tommy comes in with, “Speaking of drink?”

“Yes?”

“Well, you sure got generous with that bar of yours…” He trails off, looking at me suggestively.

I nod. “I’m still paying off my debts. The lenders are turning the screws.”

Tommy smirks. “So it’s off limits tonight, then?”

“Didn’t say that.”

“How do you even keep so well supplied? You’re not twenty-one yet.”

I give him a superior look. I have no intention of parting with my secrets or opening my supplier up to requests from someone as thirsty as Tommy. He’d ruin it for all of us.

“Let’s just say I’m well-connected.”

“You can ban him if you want to, Jimmy,” Susan suggests. “You know what he gets like… we risk him making a fool of himself.”

They smile at each other with narrowed eyes.

“I’d like to see you ban me from anything.”

“I’d like to see _how_ she does it,” Dutch adds, and he bears up unsurprisingly well under the look of mild loathing he gets from Susan. She breaks first, pulling her cheeks in so she doesn’t smile as she reaches for the bowl of potatoes.

“Keep dreaming.”

Tina smirks and asks Dutch, “You want me to get ideas?”

“We all know you’ve got way too many of those for your own good,” Susan tells her.

“I’m a thinker.” Her grin is alarmingly like Dutch’s, which I’m used to by now.

That conversation goes on for a little longer, and begins to circle the drain as only our friends can.

Ali starts laughing. I think she’s changing the subject quite on purpose when she says, “Thanks for tonight, Jimmy. It was such a good excuse to come down.” She looks around at everybody, lingering on her friends, on Susan and Barbara in particular. “It’s hard being so far away.”

“It seemed like it was about time we all got back together,” Jenny says, and she’s looking up at me.

“It’s great,” Johnny agrees. “It’s only been a couple months, but life gets… it goes fast.”

“It does,” I agree, and I see Jenny’s eyes glinting, so I know it’s time. “But it’s not just that, Johnny. Everybody. We have something we’d like to share with you all.”

“Another speech?” Tommy jokes, because he still like to tease me about months ago, as if it was even at _all_ embarrassing, as if he wasn’t a _huge beneficiary_ of my parties.

“Your alcohol?” Dutch asks, throwing Tommy a grin.

I roll my eyes. “Not with that attitude.”

Johnny’s the main one out of my friends watching me closely right now: he’s picked up on something. He puts his knife and fork down and sits back in his chair.

“What is it?”

His voice is enough to get the guys’ attention, and I think the girls have noticed the way Jenny is looking slightly impatient.

All eyes turn to me.

I look around the table at my friends, our friends. At these people I’m so grateful to know, for all the different things they bring into our lives. If Tommy’s not careful, he _will_ get another speech out of me. I’m almost tempted to, just to annoy him.

The fact that there’s no dawning comprehension, no secret smiles between Jenny and her friends, means that she has held our news to herself this whole time, as we agreed to do. I look down the table at her, my heart alive from her smile, from how lucky we are to be sitting in this room.

“I’d like everybody to meet someone. I think you might already know her, but I like to call her my fiancée. Pretty soon, I’m going to call her my wife.”

There are some sounds of surprise, some happy exclamations; I can’t pick them out by owner. Jenny’s eyes are just for me, and mine for her, for the moment.

Everybody knows now. We’ve done it.

Everyone we care about knows our plans, knows about the future we’re going to have, and they support us. I see the tightness around her mouth, know it’s her way of making sure she keeps her emotions on a public even keel.

Bobby gets up first to shake my hand, and Barbara jumps up to hug Jenny, and soon all of our friends are doing it.

*

We sit on the sofas for a while after dessert, or some of our guests try their best to find room to lie down.

People are still talking to us about our news, but we’re also feeling a little sleepy, I think. We’ve all eaten too much, even me, who should know better by now, but Jenny’s food is like that. I tried every dessert, even though I’ve eaten them all before, tasted them while we were cooking, and now I have to pay the price for it because I feel slightly sick.

I allow some access to my bar; I hardly have the will to stop them, but I don’t really mind anyway.

It’s Johnny who suggests we go for a walk, and it’s a good idea. I’m worried the night will end in us all just falling asleep in a daze otherwise, and we can do way better than that. So we take off, some of us in couples, some in pairs of friends, and when we’re walking down the steps, there’s a twist in my chest that we aren’t all back in the winter, right in the thick of the parties.

It’s Dutch who notices my frown, and I guess that might mean he’s thinking it too. His hand squeezes my shoulder and I pat him on the back. Sometimes you just have special times in your life, but they always come to an end, and it’s okay to miss them.

We’re on the sand by then, just, and I’m watching Johnny and Ali kick their shoes off, doing the same. It’s dusk, the sun having set while we were still upstairs, although we can catch the last of the colors in the sky, and so we decide to head that way, into the light show.

It paints Dutch’s face orange and indigo as he sighs, and I can tell he’s looking at Johnny and Ali.

“It’s still real, man. And this is where it happened.”

It’s not like him to be so reflective with me, but Dutch is another one I’m noticing changing. Nothing fundamental, nothing about who he is, but he’s in a new phase, and I really like it for him. He’s found something to stand on, I think, and a huge amount of that is about Tina, but not all of it.

And I guess all of us have been affected by the changes for our friends: by the way Tommy has found Susan again, and how they kinda feel like they did in high school, and yet that one is much like Johnny and Ali. It _is_ the same, and yet _nothing_ about it is the same. I can’t explain it unless you know them as well as we do, but they’ve found a new version of what they used to have. We all know how well Barbara suits Bobby, and how beautifully they treat each other.

I nod and swallow. “Do you remember?”

“I remember when I first started to believe it.”

I smile as we settle into our walk, not far behind Johnny and Ali. She’s giving this look up at him while they walk in between Barbara and Bobby.

“Sometimes, I still almost _don’t,_ ” I say quietly to Dutch. “That’s why it’s nice to have her down here. To see them together, you know?”

“Yeah. It’s gonna be good to go away together, huh? All of us. Me and Tina can’t wait.”

“Right. We should talk about those plans.”

He and I start a little bit, and we haven’t gotten very far when Johnny drops back to walk next to me. Ali’s moved on up the beach to walk with some of her other friends: Greg and Samantha, and Connie and Freddy, and it looks like Greg is telling them all a funny story.

“Congratulations,” Johnny says to me.

“Thank you. And thanks for coming up here for tonight, and making sure Ali made it.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” He gives me a considering look and puts his hands in his pockets. “How long ago did you ask her?”

I’m not surprised it’s Johnny who’s the one to think of that first. Jenny and I have decided to be a little fuzzy on the details, just in case anyone’s feelings will be hurt from being kept in the dark. Seven, nearly eight months is a long time. Johnny wouldn’t mind, of course; he’d know I had my reasons, but some of Jenny’s friends might, we aren’t sure.

“A little before Christmas. We had to wait until we’d told the parents, of course.”

Johnny blows out a breath. “How’d that go?”

“Fine. Actually, really well.”

“Shit,” Dutch says. “I didn’t even think of that. So did you, like, ask her Dad and everything?”

“You know I did.”

Dutch shakes his head and grins. “I know you’re old-fashioned.”

“I’m taking the man’s daughter away from him, in his eyes,” I explain. “It meant a lot to him, I think, that I asked. Kinda might have made up for us not telling them right away, too.”

“So when’s the big day?” Johnny asks.

“We’re thinking maybe October.”

“You’re getting married this year?” Dutch asks, wide-eyed. “You’re only twenty, man.”

I raise my eyebrows, and ask steadily, “How long would you like me to wait?”

Dutch throws his hand up, makes a dismissive gesture. “I dunno, Jimmy. You’re just… young.”

“Yep. Age isn’t gonna change anything, though, not for us. So, now, or later, makes little difference. Why shouldn’t we do it, when we’re sure?”

He huffs a breath, amused but not giving me anywhere near the shit about this he might have, once. “Alright, I get it, old man. You know what you’re doing.”

“He does,” Johnny says calmly. “You always do, Jimmy.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“He’s right,” Dutch sighs. “You fucking _do_. Make the rest of us look real bad sometimes, you know?”

I put one arm up around each of them.

“Thanks, guys. It means a lot to me that you’re with me.”

Johnny smiles in thought, and doesn’t reply.

*

The walk back down the beach is pretty excited.

We’re in a whirl of talking about activities: surfing, shopping, swimming, partying, whether we should try to take the bikes or not. The trip is starting to take real shape. Jenny’s got her arm linked with me, and I’m letting her lead our part of the discussion, because she’s in organiser mode, and loving it.

“Okay, so we’ve got the accommodation booked,” Bobby says. “Thanks, Jimmy. What do you wanna do about food?”

“We can cook,” Jenny says quickly.

“We can,” I agree, “and we can go out, too? It’d be nice to eat local food. We all love Mexican, right?”

“Right,” Ali agrees. “We can do breakfast in one of the houses in morning. And see what we wanna do for the other meals.”

Susan adds, “I don’t want Jen doing all the work.” Jenny’s drawing her breath to argue: I see it, hear it and sense it with all my being. But Susan keeps talking. “This is different. I know you love it, and _we_ love it even more when you feed us. But you need a holiday. I _won’t_ be moved on this.”

Jenny’s smiling and linking her arm with Susan on that side so that the three of us are joined. Susan’s one of the few with the nerve to stand up to Jenny about her workaholism, and I appreciate what she’s saying. I doubt she’ll have a lot of luck, but she’s right, and I love her effort. I keep quiet, glad that for once someone else is trying, instead of me.

“I’m willing to enter negotiations,” Jenny says. “What are your proposals?”

“Now wait a minute,” Bobby says, and he’s turned around to talk to us. “I agree, sure, Jennifer has to get her holiday. That’s a given.” He looks at her hopefully. “But you’ll make those pies for us, won’t you?”

Barbara taps him on the arm. “Stop thinking about your stomach, will you?”

“Hey, it’s a _compliment_.”

“It _is_ ,” Jenny agrees fervently, smiling at Bobby like he’s the only one on her side among all of us.

*

Back at home, it just seems right to put some music on, and make a real party to finish the night.

I mix the music between stuff the girls and guys like. Tommy and Dutch test the boundaries about my bar until they realise I don’t really have any, now, and soon we do one row of shots, an homage to those fun winter nights.

Some of the girls dance in a group, getting crazy, having fun, and for a while we mostly stand around and watch. It’s a good chance to talk to each other, and we take it.

I find Johnny again, and we start talking about our most recent karate sessions. It’s been so much fun. The last few weeks it’s what we’ve done to hang out, and it feels like we’re back a few years ago together, loving our sport, but in the best circumstances now. We’re just enjoying it for its own sake, and the challenge of trying to improve.

Then Johnny says, “Oh. I, uh… I actually went to a dojo this week.”

I look at him in interest. “You found somewhere?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know yet. But it’s about time I try again.”

“ _Johnny,”_ I say with feeling, “that’s awesome.”

He starts to smile. “It was Ali, actually. She won’t get off my case about it.”

I see the way he looks across the room at her, and the depth of his feelings is plain, and also nearly shocking to me.

“I’m glad. You most of all should find somewhere. It’s been a crime that you haven’t been able to these last few years.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what she says.”

“Well, she’s right. Ali’s an intelligent girl. We know that.”

Johnny flashes me a grin. “It won’t stop me seeing you guys, though.”

“I know that,” I say confidently.

Tommy joins us, and Dutch and Tina, and the karate talk goes on. We’re planning what to focus on for the next little while, and also still working over some more options of where we train together.

Eventually, most of us get pulled into our couples, or into groups.

“Hey,” Jenny says, looping her arms around my neck.

“Hey, you good?”

“I’m great, Jimmy. I’m having a wonderful night.”

My beautiful girl looks as happy as I do, and it occurs to me again to wonder why I deserve this. It feels better now, to know that we’re not the only ones in the room feeling this way, though.

Jenny and I dance the night away in our home, and I wonder if anybody else has the kind of friends we’re lucky enough to have.

**The end.**


End file.
